One of Guelph’s own Assistant Professors, Dr. Jennifer McWhirter from the Department of Population Medicine, was recently published in three well-known journals after the completion of a study for her doctoral dissertation at the University of Waterloo.
She studied Canadian women’s magazines from 2000-2012 to report on coverage of skin cancer and recreational tanning. When asked why she chose the media as her focal point of study, McWhirter replied, “The media is an important source of health information for people. The media also conveys cultural beauty ideals. Both are important themes in my research, and are highly relevant to the issue of tanning.” Based on the Agenda Setting Theory, the more an issue stands out in mass media, the more important people believe it to be.
“Relative to other cancers, such as breast cancer, skin cancer receives little media attention. This result can be that people may not know very much about it or may not think it is a big issue.” But, as McWhirter states, it is a big issue—“one in five Canadians will get skin cancer in their lifetime.”
Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in Canada, and it is a growing concern as the incidence of cases rises by approximately 1.5 per cent each year. The cost of skin cancer care in 2004 was a significant $532 million, and this is expected to increase to $922 million by 2031. With all of these factors for concern, we might expect that skin cancer coverage in magazines would increase over time with more emphasis on risk factors, prevention, and screening; but this is not the case.
“There was no clear trend in an increase or decrease of the number of articles about skin cancer and tanning published over time. It fluctuated from year to year without any clear pattern.”
Of the 154 articles that were examined, 71 per cent promoted sunscreen use with 39 per cent indicating that UV exposure is a risk factor for skin cancer. However, these few positive pieces of information in the articles were contradicted when compared with almost half of the text and more than half of the accompanying images that promoted the tanned look as attractive. Less than 11 per cent of the articles promoted and informed about early detection procedures, with almost no images portraying risk factors or screening.
Around 77 per cent of adults in Canada use tanning equipment to enhance their appearance and 29 per cent of women in Canada tan from the sun or tanning equipment. The media may encourage these attitudes and behaviours when the content promotes a tanned appearance as normal and desirable.
McWhirter found that the article texts were written at the post-graduate level, so readers would focus more on images conveying the tanned look as attractive, driving their harmful UV behaviours even more.
“In the future, it would be great to see more media coverage on the issue of skin cancer,” said McWhirter, “Images that convey the risks of UV exposure and the damage it causes to the skin would likely also motivate healthier skin behaviours.”
The study concluded that, although there is some skin cancer information reported frequently in Canadian magazines, there is significant need for improvement. This includes “reporting on all of the major risk factors for skin cancer (not only UV exposure); reporting on a variety of ways to prevent skin cancer (not only sunscreen use); more explicitly discouraging tanning; and encouraging early detection for skin cancer, including showing visual examples of what skin cancer looks like so people know what to look for.”
“Personally, I don’t think anyone needs to have the ‘tanned look’ to look good. We should all embrace our natural skin tone—that is what’s healthiest and most attractive. Beautiful skin comes in all different shades,” said McWhirter when asked her opinion on the practice. “Tanning is bad for your skin – it ages your skin prematurely (think wrinkles and brown spots) and it increases your risk of skin cancer.”
As one of the most important ways to prevent skin cancer, along with sunscreen use, McWhirter suggests avoiding UV radiation from the sun and tanning beds. “Both the sun and indoor tanning beds emit UV radiation, which is what causes 90 per cent of skin cancers.” UV radiation is a Group 1 carcinogen, which is the same category as cigarettes.
McWhirter’s study was published in the Journal of Cancer Education, the Canadian Journal of Public Health, and the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. For University of Guelph students who are interested in reading the full study, it can be accessed through the library’s Primo search tool.