Teens who tan are indulging in risky business - and not just in the tanning salon, it seems.
New research suggests that teenagers who use indoor tanning bed facilities are more inclined to adopt other harmful habits. While the dangers of tanning - outdoors and indoors alike - have been recognized for several years, the study has, for the first time, found links to other risk-taking behaviors. Underage drinking, illegal drug and steroid use, and poor weight management or weight control are all associated with indoor tanning. Tanning teens are thought to be more concerned with physical appearance, which, in turn, sees them seeking out ill-advised - and often dangerous - methods to obtain their desired physique.
The study looked at responses from around 26,000 students (beginning at age 14), all surveyed about indoor tanning habits in 2009 and 2011. In addition, the CDC parsed data from the annual Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which typically derive information from 15.5 million US high school students. Just over 13 percent of respondents claimed to have used indoor tanning facilities (considered a high number, despite anti-tanning campaigns being prevalent for much of their lifetimes), though more than half of those students had done so ten or more times over the course of the preceding year.
"We saw that indoor tanning is associated with a number of other risky behaviors, such as illegal drug use, binge drinking and smoking," said study leader, Gery Guy Jr., PhD, to HealthDay News. Guy is a health economist for the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), and specializes in cancer prevention.
"We also found that teens who tan indoors are likely to be very concerned about their appearance," he added. "That sometimes leads to positive behaviors, like engaging in sports and eating healthy foods. But it also leads to unhealthy behaviors, such as steroid use or extreme weight control."
Nevertheless, indoor tanning about teenage girls on the whole looks to be declining, sliding from 26 percent to 21 percent during the two-year period examined. However, at the older end of the spectrum - ages 18 and up - the trend persisted, with just under a third of girls in that age group using tanning beds in 2011. Similarly, among boys, indoor tanning was most popular amongst the same 18+ age group. Tanning girls were found more likely to use illicit drugs and have multiple sexual partners, while boys were more likely to smoke, take steroids without a prescription, or attempt suicide. Both groups were found more likely than their non-tanning counterparts to binge drink and have unsafe weight management habits.
"Of course the emergence of risky behavior during adolescence is not a surprise," Guy said. "But as this study shows that many risky behaviors are associated with each other, it highlights the importance of taking comprehensive approaches to indoor tanning prevention."
The study, titled Indoor Tanning Among High School Students in the United States, 2009 and 2011, was published in JAMA Dermatology on February 26, 2014.
