Health effects of sunlight exposure in the United States. Results from the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1971-1974.
The dermatologic component of the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (N = 20,637), conducted from 1971 through 1974, documented the deleterious effect of ultraviolet radiation on selected skin and eye conditions. Actinic skin damage was more frequent in white men with high as compared with low sunlight exposure, 36.7% vs 23.3%, respectively. Among white women, the corresponding figures were 34.1% vs 18.6%, respectively. Actinic damage was found more often in individuals with light eye color. Basal cell epitheliomas were found in 11.3% of white men aged 65 to 74 years who had severely actinic-damaged skin as compared with 1.0% of those with undamaged skin. Sunlight exposure was positively associated with localized hypomelanism, localized hypermelanism, seborrheic keratoses, senile lentigines, freckles, acne rosacea, spider nevi, varicose veins, venus star, dry skin, wrinkled skin, pterygia, arcus senilis, and a variety of minor oral lesions of the tongue, palate, and buccal mucosa. These findings suggest that a large number of dermatologic conditions, which may in part result from overexposure to sunlight, may be preventable.[1]References
- Health effects of sunlight exposure in the United States. Results from the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1971-1974. Engel, A., Johnson, M.L., Haynes, S.G. Archives of dermatology. (1988) [Pubmed]
Annotations and hyperlinks in this abstract are from individual authors of WikiGenes or automatically generated by the WikiGenes Data Mining Engine. The abstract is from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.About WikiGenesOpen Access LicencePrivacy PolicyTerms of Useapsburg