UV tanning advertisements in national high school newspapers.

Many young adults have utilized indoor ultraviolet(UV) tanning, putting them at higher risk for development of skin cancers. Prior to the increased regulations on indoor tanning for minors, indoor tanning businesses marketed to teens through modalities such as advertisements in high school newspapers. The purpose of this study was to quantify tanning advertisements in high school newspapers published across the United States between August 2014 and July 2015. Online versions of the newspaper issues were available on issuu.com. Tanning advertisements appeared in 3 of 23 high school newspapers with advertisements of any kind(13%). Among all newspapers with advertisements, 10% were indoor tanning advertisements. One newspaper in Colorado contained advertisements of any kind and had 0 tanning advertisements. A prior study of Colorado high schools showed 11 of 23 schools (48%) to contain tanning advertisements. This suggests that there may be a decrease in indoor UV tanning advertisements owing to increased tanning regulation by state legislatures, national attention to UV tanning, or a general decrease in high school tanning advertisements.

Disease Severity and Quality of Life Measurements in Contact Dermatitis: A Systematic Review 2005-2015.

BACKGROUND: Contact dermatitis (CD) has been assessed by numerous disease severity indices resulting in heterogeneity across published research. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate published CD severity scales and identify a criterion standard for assessment. METHODS: Scopus and Ovid MEDLINE were searched for human randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on CD severity measures published during a 10-year period. Eligible studies were English-language RCTs reporting disease severity outcome measures for CD in humans. Studies were excluded if they were duplicates, not available in English, not related to CD, not RCTs, not conducted on human subjects, or did not report relevant outcome measures. RESULTS: A total of 22 disease outcome measures were used in 81 included RCTs. Instrument-based measures were used in 40 (49.4%) studies, and visual assessments were used in 66 (81.5%) RCTs. Only 5 (6.2%) studies reported quality of life (QoL) outcomes. Two (2.5%) studies used a clinical severity scale, which combined both QoL and visual assessments. LIMITATIONS: This study was limited by the exclusion of non-RCTs and gray literature. CONCLUSIONS: Wide variation in CD outcome measures exists including instrument-based measures, visual assessments, and QoL outcomes. A standardized outcome measure must be generated to reduce heterogeneity.