Are migration changes behind falling melanoma rate in young Aussies?
Increased screen time may be a contributor too, authors say.
New migration patterns and young people’s obsession with screens may be just as likely drivers of declining melanoma incidence as public sun protection campaigns, researchers suggest.
They caution against assumptions about the effectiveness of slip, slop, slap-type messages without taking account of the demographic and social changes in recent decades.
Across the population there are now more individuals with darker skin pigmentation, which lowers skin cancer risk, the authors say.
The team, from the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane, has found that the proportion of Australians younger than 35 who are at low-to-moderate risk of invasive melanoma has grown to about 30% because of migration.
