What is the purpose of UV4U?
To educate the community about sun exposure by compiling credible research into one source.
If you don't know what UV means, you can start by clicking on the UV Information tab above. You can also take the Susceptibility Quiz to get a better idea of how susecptible you are. Feel free to browse around and learn how you can protect yourself and your family from the harmful effects of sun exposure.
How effective is Skin-Cancer Prevention Education?
According to the Health Indicators Warehouse, while 72% of K-12 schools provide Sun Safety or Skin Cancer Prevention programs, only 9.3% of adolescents in these grades follow protective measures that may reduce the risk of skin cancer. [HIW - i]
What about adults?
When compared to adolescents, 67% of adults are much more careful about sun preventive measures such as: limiting sun exposure, using sunscreen, or wearing protective clothing. [HIW - ii]
Is there any difference between sun prevention measures taken by males versus females?
There does seem to be a difference in preventative measures between genders. Adolescent females are nearly twice as likely to apply protective measures than males (12.4% of females versus 6.5% of males). [HIW - iii] Even when female become adults they still take the lead on these preventive measures (71.2% of females versus 62.7% of males). [HIW - iv]
Why should we care about skin cancer or prevention?
As a person ages the death rate for melanoma drastically increases. As an adolescent, a person has a lower chance (0.6 per 100,000 for people ages 18-24) of dying from melanoma than an elderly person (12.9 per 100,000 for people from ages 65 and older). Also, males (4 per 100,000) risk dying from melanoma twice as much when compared to females (1.7 per 100,000). [HIW - v]