This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related articles  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Medical Practice  • Law and Medicine  • Dermatologic Disorders  • Pediatrics  • Adolescent Medicine  • Neoplasms  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Practices of 3647 US Indoor Tanning Facilities

Latrice C. Pichon, PhD, MPH; Joni A. Mayer, PhD; Katherine D. Hoerster, MS; Susan I. Woodruff, PhD; Donald J. Slymen, PhD; George E. Belch, PhD; Elizabeth J. Clapp, MPH; Ami L. Hurd, MPH; Jean L. Forster, PhD, MPH; Martin A. Weinstock, MD, PhD

Arch Dermatol. 2009;145(9):997-1002.

Objective  To assess indoor tanning facility practices in a sample of facilities in 116 cities representing all 50 states.

Design  Cross-sectional study.

Setting  United States.

Participants  Employees of 3647 indoor tanning facilities were contacted by telephone. Data collectors (ie, confederates) posed as prospective, fair-skinned, 15-year-old female customers who had never tanned before.

Main Outcome Measures  Confederates asked respondents about their facility's practices related to parental consent, parental accompaniment, and allowable tanning session frequency.

Results  Approximately 87% of the facilities required parental consent, 14% required parental accompaniment, 5% said they would not allow the confederate to tan owing to her age, and 71% would allow tanning every day the first week of indoor tanning. In Wisconsin, which bans indoor tanning among those younger than 16 years, 70% of facilities would not allow the confederate to tan. Multivariate analyses indicated that facilities in states with a youth access law were significantly more likely to require parental consent (P <.001) and parental accompaniment (P <.001) than those in states without a youth access law. Law was not significantly related to allowable tanning frequency (P = .81).

Conclusion  We recommend that additional states pass youth access legislation, preferably in the form of bans.

Author Affiliations: San Diego State University/University of California, San Diego, Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health, San Diego (Dr Pichon); Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology (Ms Hoerster), Graduate School of Public Health (Drs Mayer and Slymen and Mss Clapp and Hurd), School of Social Work (Dr Woodruff), Department of Marketing (Dr Belch), and School of Public Health (Dr Forster), University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; Dermatoepidemiology Unit, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and the Departments of Dermatology and Community Health, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island (Dr Weinstock).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLES

Developing Healthy Sun Habits for Life: Challenges and Opportunities
Andrew E. Werchniak and Linda C. Wang
Arch Dermatol. 2009;145(9):1051-1052.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Objectification Theory and Our Understanding of Indoor Tanning
Jerod Stapleton, Rob Turrisi, Alyssa Todaro, and June K. Robinson
Arch Dermatol. 2009;145(9):1059-1060.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

This Month in Archives of Dermatology
Arch Dermatol. 2009;145(9):978.
FULL TEXT  

Tanning and Increased Nevus Development in Very-Light-Skinned Children Without Red Hair
Jenny Aalborg, Joseph G. Morelli, Stefan T. Mokrohisky, Nancy L. Asdigian, Tim E. Byers, Robert P. Dellavalle, Neil F. Box, and Lori A. Crane
Arch Dermatol. 2009;145(9):989-996.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Developing Healthy Sun Habits for Life: Challenges and Opportunities
Werchniak and Wang
Arch Dermatol 2009;145:1051-1052.
FULL TEXT