Reality TV takes on indoor tanning

This presentation describes a peer-to-peer health education video project targeted at high school students. It was designed to provide a unique approach to raising awareness and changing behaviors regarding the dangerous practice of indoor tanning. Studies show that indoor tanning for any period of time and at any age may increase the likelihood of developing melanoma by 74%. The Youth Health Risk Behavior questionnaire (2011) showed that indoor tanning device use in Non-Hispanic White females was 14% among freshman and 44 % among seniors. Adolescent females report the use of indoor tanning devices three times more often than adolescent males. In 2009, 7% of all cancers diagnosed in females, between the ages of 15 to 19 years old, were melanoma. Females between the ages of 15-19 had twice the incidence of melanoma as compared to boys in this same age group. Although melanoma is more common in young females, it is more deadly in men. The “Glenna's Gift Video Project” is based on interviews with Glenna Kohl who succumbed to melanoma at the age of 26. Glenna shares her personal struggle with a tanning addiction and melanoma. The video features actual high school students viewing and responding to the interviews. Their comments as they vacillated between empathy and denial provide a discussion starter for classroom programs. Another segment includes a dermatologist teaching the “ABCDE's of Melanoma” detection to a student. This peer-to-peer perspective provides a “reality TV” format that has been well received in our classroom presentations and focus groups.