| Abstrakt: |
The World Health Organization (WHO, 2003) considers tanning devices to be carcinogenic. Moreover, the International Agency for Research on Cancer changed their classification of indoor tanning devices from "probably carcinogenic" to "carcinogenic to humans" after a review of the scientific evidence in 2009 (ACS, 2013d). Regardless of the health risks, people still continue to use indoor tanning mainly for appearance reasons. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), white women between the ages of 18 and 21 years residing in the Midwest and white women between the ages of 22 and 25 year in the South were most likely to use indoor tanning devices. Many studies have assessed the motives for tanning bed use and tanning behaviors, however, no known studies have measured behaviors, perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes regarding tanning bed use among Kentucky college students. Therefore, the purpose of this research study was to identify behaviors, perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes regarding tanning bed use among college students' ages 18-25 years who attended a southeastern Kentucky University. Both paper and online surveys were administered to 252 undergraduate students enrolled in general health courses at a large southeastern public university (45% rate of completion), during the spring of 2014 semester. The tanning survey included 45 anonymous questions about demographic information, tanning bed use behaviors, risk factor knowledge, and perceptions of skin cancer risk. The results indicated that these college students did not have a considerable amount of misbeliefs about health benefits of tanning bed use and they were knowledgeable about the cancer risks. In addition, the findings suggests that education alone is minimally effective and it will take a shift in social norms to modify tanning behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
