Sun protection behavior among adults in the Brazilian state capitals

 

Introduction: The high rates of non melanoma skin cancers in Brazil show evidence of the importance of prevention of diseases related to sun exposure. Objectives: This study analyses data related to individual sun protection of the telephone survey (VIGITEL) of the Risk Factor and Protection of NCD Surveillance of the Ministry of Health. Methods: This survey counted on a probabilistic sample of the population with 18 years of age or more living in households with at least one landline telephone in the 26 state capitals and the Federal District. The electronic questionnaire was applied on 54,251 individuals and includes socio-demographic characteristics and several questions related to life habits, health state self evaluation, cancer prevention and self referred morbidity. Percentages, age and schooling associated and respective 95% Confidence Intervals were calculated (CI) for persons that reported using some sort of protection (solar filter, hat, umbrella) among those that exposed themselves regularly to the sun for more than 30 minutes. Results: 62.3% of women and 42.9% of men reported using protection when exposed to the sun. The highest rates of protection were observed among women from Southern Region cities (79.7 and 75.3%, respectively). The use of protection was greater among the population with more years schooling (RP=1.68 in men and 1.46 in women) if compared to those who had not completed fundamental schooling. A positive association has been observed due to age increase. Conclusions: Solar protection has been most frequent in the Southern region of the country where there is a greater number of fair skinned persons. The results indicate the need of improvement of skin cancer control strategies prioritizing younger age groups of lower socio-economical population with special focus on rural workers and other outdoors workers.