Few People Over 50 Receive Skin Cancer Screenings

Among people over 50, those who did not finish high school or have not recently had common cancer screenings such as a mammogram, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test or colorectal cancer screening, are also less likely to be screened for skin cancer. This finding appears in a new study by an investigator at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) and colleagues, which shows screening rates for skin cancer are low among middle-aged and older Caucasian adults and that physicians may want to further emphasize skin examinations for this population, especially for men and those with less education. CINJ is a Center of Excellence of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

According to the American Cancer Society, skin cancer is the most common of all cancers. Melanoma represents about five percent of all skin cancer cases, but accounts for most skin cancer deaths. In New Jersey alone, 2,530 individuals were diagnosed with melanoma last year and there were 68,720 new cases nationally. In contrast to many other types of cancer, the mortality rate for melanoma has been steadily rising over the past 35 years. The current study focused on skin cancer screening among middle-aged and older Caucasian adults, as the mortality rate for melanoma has been increasing most notably among these individuals.

The study, Prevalence and Correlates of Skin Cancer Screening Among Middle-aged and Older White Adults in the United States, published in the current online edition of the American Journal of Medicine (Vol. 123, No. 5), examined 10,486 Caucasian men and women aged 50 and older drawn from a random sample of 31,428 adults aged 18 and older who took part in the 2005 National Health Interview Survey. Participants indicated whether they had undergone a skin examination by a dermatologist or other doctor in the past year, and also completed questions about their demographic characteristics, health and healthcare access, history of skin cancer, and other cancer screenings received, such as a mammogram, PSA test, and colorectal cancer screening. Somewhat more than half of the participants (54 percent) were female, and nearly all participants (91 percent) said they had been to a physician at least once in the past year. Of those interviewed, relatively few noted that they had a personal or family history of skin cancer.

The study found that 16 percent of men and 13 percent of women reported having a skin examination in the past year. Factors associated with the lowest rates of having a skin examination in the past year included being aged 50 to 64 years (12 percent skin examination rate among men and women), having a lower education level (some high school education or less: nine percent skin examination rate among men and eight percent among women), lacking screening for breast (seven percent skin examination rate among women), prostate (eight percent skin examination rate among men), and colorectal cancers (seven percent skin examination rate among men and nine percent among women), and not having a personal history of skin cancer (13 percent skin examination rate among men and 12 percent among women).