Sunscreen Recommendations Should Be Made Much More Often

Many professional organizations, including the American Academy of Dermatology, recommend patient counseling regarding sun exposure and sun-protective behaviors. The US Preventive Services Task Force finds with moderate certainty that such counsel benefits fair-skinned patients aged 10 to 24 (no benefit was found in older patients). To assess sunscreen recommendation trends, these authors used survey data on office visits to U.S. physicians. They analyzed visits in which sunscreen was currently used, dispensed, or recommended and those made for skin disease, particularly skin cancer. Participating physicians recorded information about patient demographics, reason for visit, diagnoses, procedures, therapeutics, and referrals.

From January 1989 through December 2010, sunscreen was recommended at 12.83 million of an estimated 18.30 billion patients visits nationwide (0.07%). Sunscreen was recommended at 237 of every 100,000 visits by white patients and 26 of every 100,000 visits by black patients. It was recommended most frequently to patients aged 70 to 80 and least frequently for children younger than 10 years. Sunscreen use was mentioned more frequently to patients with skin disease, but still at fewer than 1% of visits involving a skin disease diagnosis. Most appointments associated with sunscreen recommendations (86.4%) were with dermatologists, followed by general and family practitioners (9.6%), pediatricians (1.4%), other specialists (1.4%), and internists (1.1%). Although sunscreen was most frequently recommended by dermatologists, recommendations were made in only 1.6% of all dermatology visits.