Too little, too late: College women's perceptions of warning labels and legislation in the indoor tanning industry

background:

College age women are the largest consumers of tanning beds. Public health efforts to address indoor tanning are scant, particularly in policy. The Food and Drug Administration recently proposed new warning labels for tanning beds. For warning labels and other tanning policy to be effective, we must understand how this group of tanning bed users perceives proposed policies and warning messages.  

methods:

Female tanners aged 18 to 25 were recruited from a Southeastern college during March 2014. Young women with no history of skin cancer who had tanned indoors in the past 12 months were eligible to participate in the study.  Twenty-four participants completed a brief survey and in-depth interviews.  The transcriptions were analyzed by all three authors for patterns and consensus using an iterative process.

results:

Most participants agreed that current warning labels and policies were ineffective.  Most participants indicated that warning labels on tanning beds were overlooked and disregarded.  There was a hypocrisy of reactions to proposed frequency restrictions for adult tanners.  Participants agreed that the restrictions would be helpful, but that they would not want a tanning restriction policy in place.  Finally, participants reacted positively to restrictions for minors but indicated they would dislike the restriction if they were still a minor.

conclusions:

This study explored indoor tanners’ perceptions of indoor tanning regulation and FDA warning messages.  Understanding young women’s perceptions of regulations and warning messages is important in enforcing and promoting healthy behaviors.  These findings can inform future policy and health communication on indoor tanning.