To describe Scottish adolescents’ sun-related behaviours and tanning attitudes and assess associations with skin cancer awareness.,Cross-sectional study.,20 state secondary schools in one Scottish local authority (Glasgow City).,2173 adolescents (females: 50.7%, n=1102) with a mean age of 12.4 (SD=0.55).,Sun-related behaviour (suntan, sunbathing, sunburn, sunscreen use, sunbed use), tanning attitudes, skin cancer-related symptom and risk factor awareness.,Adolescents reported poor sun-related practice: 51% of adolescents reported sunburn the previous summer of whom 38% indicated sunburn on more than one occasion.,Skin cancer awareness was low: 45% recognised ‘change in the appearance of a mole’ as a cancer symptom, and 39% agreed that ‘getting sunburnt more than once as a child’ increased cancer risk. 42% and 26% of adolescents, respectively, reported that friends and family held protanning attitudes.,Compared with males, females were statistically significantly more likely to: report sunbathing (p<0.001), use of lotions or oil to aid tanning (p=0.009) and sunburn (p<0.001); know that changes in the appearance of a mole was a skin cancer symptom (p=0.036) and sunburn more than once as a child was a skin cancer risk factor (p=0.005); perceive their friends to hold protanning attitudes (p<0.001) and indicate that a tan made them feel better about themselves (p<0.001), more attractive to others (p=0.011) and healthier (p<0.001).,Scottish adolescents had poor sun protection practice and low skin cancer awareness.,Girls adopted riskier sun-related behaviour despite greater awareness of skin cancer-related risk.,Urgent action is required to promote positive sun-related behaviour and increase skin cancer awareness among Scottish adolescents.,However, further research is needed to inform the development of effective sun-safe interventions.
Objective To estimate the burden of melanoma resulting from sunbed use in western Europe.,Design Systematic review and meta-analysis.,Data sources PubMed, ISI Web of Science (Science Citation Index Expanded), Embase, Pascal, Cochrane Library, LILACS, and MedCarib, along with published surveys reporting prevalence of sunbed use at national level in Europe.,Study selection Observational studies reporting a measure of risk for skin cancer (cutaneous melanoma, squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma) associated with ever use of sunbeds.,Results Based on 27 studies ever use of sunbeds was associated with a summary relative risk of 1.20 (95% confidence interval 1.08 to 1.34).,Publication bias was not evident.,Restricting the analysis to cohorts and population based studies, the summary relative risk was 1.25 (1.09 to 1.43).,Calculations for dose-response showed a 1.8% (95% confidence interval 0% to 3.8%) increase in risk of melanoma for each additional session of sunbed use per year.,Based on 13 informative studies, first use of sunbeds before age 35 years was associated with a summary relative risk of 1.87 (1.41 to 2.48), with no indication of heterogeneity between studies.,By using prevalence data from surveys and data from GLOBOCAN 2008, in 2008 in the 15 original member countries of the European Community plus three countries that were members of the European Free Trade Association, an estimated 3438 cases of melanoma could be attributable to sunbed use, most (n=2341) occurring among women.,Conclusions Sunbed use is associated with a significant increase in risk of melanoma.,This risk increases with number of sunbed sessions and with initial usage at a young age (<35 years).,The cancerous damage associated with sunbed use is substantial and could be avoided by strict regulations.