Celaj Stela, Deng Jie, Murphy Brendan L, Kundu Roopal V
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois.
Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire
Dermatol Online J. 2017 Oct 15;23(10):13030/qt8nm653p2.
UV radiation exposure is one of the key modifiable risk factors for skin cancer. Hence, patient education regarding skin protection and sunscreen use is of tremendous importance to public health. To better understand patient practices regarding skin protection in a population level, we looked into the Internet search behavior of the US-based population. We investigated patient inquires on the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announcements regarding sunscreen use by quantifying search terms such as "broad spectrum sunscreen", "sunscreen" and "sunblock" with Google Trends, a novel methodology for understanding internet search practices. Our findings show that "broad spectrum sunscreen" searches were significantly increased post 2011 FDA announcements, which suggest increased public awareness regarding the importance of broad spectrum protection. It is encouraging these preliminary results indicate that skin protection practices are being increasingly investigated by the general public and may serve as a novel approach for identifying areas of improvement regarding patient education on the reduction of the risk for skin cancer.
紫外线辐射暴露是皮肤癌的关键可改变风险因素之一。因此，对患者进行皮肤保护和使用防晒霜的教育对公众健康极为重要。为了在人群层面更好地了解患者的皮肤保护行为，我们研究了美国人群的互联网搜索行为。我们通过谷歌趋势（一种了解互联网搜索行为的新方法）对“广谱防晒霜”“防晒霜”和“防晒乳”等搜索词进行量化，调查了患者对美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）有关防晒霜使用公告的查询情况。我们的研究结果表明，2011年FDA发布公告后，“广谱防晒霜”的搜索量显著增加，这表明公众对广谱防护重要性的认识有所提高。令人鼓舞的是，这些初步结果表明，公众越来越关注皮肤保护行为，这可能是一种新方法，有助于确定在降低皮肤癌风险方面患者教育的改进领域。
