(Press-News.org) NEW YORK, NY - A century's worth of cultural and historical forces have contributed to the rise in the incidence of melanoma, including changes in fashion and clothing design, according to an intriguing, retrospective research study conducted by investigators in the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology at NYU Langone Medical Center.
Their findings are the subject of a report, "More Skin, More Sun, More Tan, More Melanoma," in the October 6, 2014 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
The authors surmised that early diagnosis and improved reporting practices do not fully account for the steady rise in cases of melanoma. They set out to explore extenuating factors that may also have contributed to the increase in reported cases in the U.S.
Led by David Polsky, MD, PhD, Alfred W. Kopf, MD Professor of Dermatologic Oncology in the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology at NYU Langone, they looked into the transformative effect of socioeconomic trends dating from the1900's. They analyzed clothing styles, social norms, medical paradigms, perceptions of tanned skin, economic trends and travel patterns.
For comparisons between periods, they estimated percentage of exposed areas of the body. For example, early in the 20th century people donned clothing that almost totally concealed the body from head to toe. "Porcelain" skin was favored over the "tanned" skin, which was associated with a lower class of people who worked outdoors.
Changes in medical practice also would pave the way for a shift.
"In the early 20th century, sunshine became widely accepted as treatment for rickets and tuberculosis, and was considered to be good for overall general health," Dr. Polsky said. In lay circles, this medical prescriptive translated into a growing belief in the benefit of tanning. People also began to enjoy more leisure time and to favor swimwear and sportswear that progressively covered less skin. Voices that raised concern about the dangers of UV exposure were largely ignored.
Another contributing factor, the researchers concluded, has been the reversal in attitude about tanned skin, which became a sign of the leisurely upper class quality of life and good health. Graphs tracking the incidence by year and percentage of estimated skin exposure show that these developments rose in parallel with the rise in melanoma cases in the U.S.
The increased incidence of melanoma over the years has been a particular concern, especially with the average age of diagnosis and death from melanoma trending younger than for most of the other major cancers. "Years-of-life lost to melanoma is nearly as high as breast cancer," Dr. Polsky said.
The study, however, did cite one positive trend – down under. Australia, widely considered the "skin cancer capital of the world" according to Dr. Polsky, has managed to turn things around, possibly with the help of a public education campaign and a change of view about tanning – thus giving other places still basking in the sun a glimmer of hope.
"Attitudes and behaviors shape exposures. More skin, more sun and more tan lead to more melanoma," Dr. Polsky concluded.
INFORMATION:
In addition to Dr. Polsky, other researchers contributing to this study include Caroline Chang, MD, Era Caterina Murzaku, BS, Lauren Penn, MD, Naheed Abbasi, MD, MPH, Paula D. Davis, MFA, and Marianne Berwick, PhD, MPH.
The study was funded, in part, by the Live4Life Foundation and the National Cancer Institute.
About NYU Langone Medical Center
NYU Langone Medical Center, a world-class, patient-centered, integrated academic medical center, is one of the nation's premier centers for excellence in clinical care, biomedical research, and medical education. Located in the heart of Manhattan, NYU Langone is composed of four hospitals—Tisch Hospital, its flagship acute care facility; Rusk Rehabilitation; the Hospital for Joint Diseases, the Medical Center's dedicated inpatient orthopaedic hospital; and Hassenfeld Children's Hospital, a comprehensive pediatric hospital supporting a full array of children's health services across the Medical Center—plus the NYU School of Medicine, which since 1841 has trained thousands of physicians and scientists who have helped to shape the course of medical history. The Medical Center's tri-fold mission to serve, teach, and discover is achieved 365 days a year through the seamless integration of a culture devoted to excellence in patient care, education, and research. For more information, go to http://www.NYULMC.org.
Champaign Ill. Herbivores (species that eat plants; e.g. caterpillars) consume more non-native (introduced from other places) oak leaf material in areas with diverse native plant communities than in less diverse communities. Why diverse plant communities tend to resist invasion by non-native plants, remains uncertain. Researchers from the Illinois Natural History Survey and the Morton Arboretum have been examining the potential role of herbivores on the invasion of non-native plant species in diverse plant communities.
The researchers examined herbivore damage on leaves ...
WASHINGTON -- A new report from the National Research Council recommends best practices that law enforcement agencies and courts should follow to improve the likelihood that eyewitness identifications used in criminal cases will be accurate. Science has provided an increasingly clear picture of the inherent limits in human visual perception and memory that can lead to errors, as well as the ways unintentional cues during law enforcement processes can compromise eyewitness identifications, the report says.
"Human visual perception and memory are changeable, the ability ...
In 1897, Emile Durkheim, the father of sociology, speculated that religion could protect against against suicidal impulses. In the century that followed, numerous studies attempted to either prop up or debunk this theory, focusing primarily on Christianity, which condemns suicide as the worst of sins.
For the first time, a study published in European Psychiatry approaches Durkheim's premise through the lens of Judaism. According to the research, conducted by Dr. Gal Shoval and Dr. Ben Amit of Tel Aviv University's Sackler School of Medicine and Clalit Health Service's ...
(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – October 2, 2014) Diet-induced changes in the gut's bacterial ecosystem can alter susceptibility to an autoinflammatory bone disease by modifying the immune response, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists reported. The findings appeared September 28 as an advanced online publication of the scientific journal Nature.
The research provides insight into how the thousands of bacteria and other microorganisms that live in the intestines affect health. The microbes make up the intestinal microbiome, a diverse evolving ecosystem that aids digestion ...
COLUMBUS, Ohio – When people are in a bad mood, they are more likely to actively search social networking sites like Facebook to find friends who are doing even worse than they are, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that, in general, people use social media to connect with people who are posting positive and success-oriented updates.
"But when people are in a negative mood, they start to show more interest in the less attractive, less successful people on their social media sites," said Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, co-author of the study and professor of communication ...
Building on the poverty relief success achieved through self-sustaining high-tech "smart villages," Malaysian innovators have created blueprints for an urban counterpart that combines affordable homes, food security and sustainable jobs, aiming to solve the growing global problem of squalid city slums.
Like the 50-acre smart village sites, the 5-acre urban version provides affordable accommodation with educational and community facilities and incorporates innovative employment opportunities and food security through aquaculture and state-of-the-art water-efficient greenhouse-based ...
The majority of wines are produced from around 20 different types of grape, all of which have their own typical aroma. This is due to the terpenes, a diverse category of chemical substances including cholesterol and estrogen. Scientists from Technische Universität München (TUM), the Hochschule Geisenheim and the Universität Bonn have now identified two enzymes that determine the terpene content – and thus the aroma intensity – of grapes. The findings could play an important role in the future development of grape varieties.
From Chardonnay to Sauvignon, Dornfelder to ...
October 2, 2014 – A parent coaching intervention brings meaningful benefits for preschool-aged children with autism-spectrum disorders (ASD), according to a clinical trial in the October Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, the official journal of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
The "Play and Language for Autistic Youngsters" (PLAY) Project approach yields improved parent-child interactions, along with other benefits for children with ASD ...
Have you ever ordered more food at a restaurant than you intended? There are elements of dining rooms that actually prime you to eat more food. One such element is the weight of those dining with or near you. This new Cornell University study found that the body type of your dining partner, or that of those dining nearby, may actually influence how much you serve yourself and how much you eat!
The study investigated the impact the presence of an overweight diner on healthy and unhealthy food choices and found you are more likely to serve and eat more unhealthy foods ...
This news release is available in German, Spanish, French and Japanese.
High rates of anxiety and depression amongst patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) have led many researchers to believe there could be a causal relationship between psychological factors and IBS symptoms. Now, scientists in Germany have found clear evidence that patients with IBS process pain signals from the gut abnormally, and that disturbed brain responses to pain are particularly pronounced in patients with more depression symptoms.1
At the 22nd United European Gastroenterology ...
