Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston has recently released a new research which has collected info from around 450k adults every year since 2014, has shown that the rates of skin cancer are higher among gay and bisexual men if compared to heterosexual men and women.
Researchers found that the rate of skin cancer was 8.1% among gay men and 8.4% among bisexual men. These data have to be compared with heterosexual men’s rate which is 6.7% and those of heterosexual women which is 6.7%. There are data the Independent reported.
Dr Arash Mostaghimi, which led this research in Boston, said: “If we never ask the question, we’d never know that these difference exist. This information helps inform the world about how to allocate health resources and how to train providers and leaders. When we look as disparities, it may be uncomfortable, but we need to continue to ask these questions to see if we’re getting better or worse at addressing them.”
Doctor Mostaghimi clearly explained this is not strictly linked to those risk factors for skin cancer, such as UV exposure or Fitzpatrick skin type, but that those discrepancies between sexualities could be linked to an increase in the use of sun-beds among gay and bisexual men.
He then added: “Smaller studies have reported higher usage of indoor tanning beds among sexual minority men, a known risk factor for skin cancer. As a next step, we want to connect with sexual minority communities to help identify the cause of these differences in skin cancer rates. This is work that will need to be done thoughtfully but may help not just sexual minorities, but everyone.”
Do you you use sun-beds a lot?
