We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Sunscreen Counseling by US Physicians.
- Authors
Federman, Daniel G.; Kirsner, Robert S.; Concato, John
- Abstract
IMPORTANCE Sunscreen is an important part of sun protection to prevent skin cancer but may not be recommended as often as guidelines dictate. OBJECTIVE To evaluate trends in sunscreen recommendation among physicians to determine whether they are following suggested patient-education guidelines regarding sun protection, and to assess data regarding physician sunscreen recommendations to determine the association with patient demographics, physician specialty, and physician diagnosis. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey was queried to identify patient visits to nonfederal outpatient physician offices at US ambulatory care practices (January 1,1989-December 26,2010) during which sunscreen was recommended. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Frequency of sunscreen recommendation. RESULTS According to the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, there were an estimated 18.30 billion patient visits nationwide. Physicians mentioned sunscreen at approximately 12.83 million visits (0.07%). Mention of sunscreen was reported by physicians at 0.9% of patient visits associated with a diagnosis of skin disease. Dermatologists recorded the mention of sunscreen the most (86.4% of all visits associated with sunscreen). However, dermatologists reported mentioning sunscreen at only 1.6% of all dermatology visits. Sunscreen was mentioned most frequently to white patients, particularly those in their eighth decade of life, and least frequently to children. Actinic keratosis was the most common diagnosis associated with sunscreen recommendation. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Despite encouragement to provide patient education regarding sunscreen use and sun-protective behaviors, the rate at which physicians are mentioning sunscreen at patient visits is quite low, even for patients with a history of skin cancer. The high incidence and morbidity of skin cancer can be greatly reduced with the implementation of sun-protective behaviors, which patients should be counseled about at outpatient visits.
- Subjects
MEDICAL practice; MEDICAL prescriptions; SUNSCREENS (Cosmetics); PATIENT education; SKIN care; SKIN cancer prevention
- Publication
JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, 2014, Vol 312, Issue 1, p87
- ISSN
0098-7484
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1001/jama.2014.4320