Skin self examination behaviors among individuals diagnosed with melanoma
Many melanoma patients do not regularly perform thorough skin self examinations. We examined the extent to which melanoma patients conduct thorough skin self examination, how they perform skin self examination, and their related knowledge and self efficacy. A sample of 176 individuals (61.5% response rate) diagnosed with primary pathologic stage 0 III cutaneous malignant melanoma at a single cancer center completed a written or telephone survey regarding their skin self examination behaviors and associated factors. Almost all participants (98.9% reported their race as white. Almost three quarters (71.6% of participants reported doing an examination in the past 2 months. However, only 14.2% had examined all areas of the body in the past 2 months. Few participants reported always using a full length mirror (13.4% hand held mirror (11.3% or having someone help (9.2% when doing an examination. Having a higher level of education, greater knowledge of the ABCDE rule for detecting potential melanoma, higher skin self examination self efficacy, being shown how to do skin self examination, and being shown what a suspicious mole would look like were all significantly associated with conducting more thorough skin self examination. Most melanoma patients do not engage in regular, thorough skin self examination, and when they do examine their skin they typically do not sufficiently utilize tools and techniques to facilitate a thorough examination and tracking of potentially suspicious moles. Efforts to promote skin self examination among melanoma patients should focus on increasing knowledge and self efficacy and providing education about the why, when, and how of conducting self examination and mole tracking.
Melanoma research