Rising Rates of Skin Cancer In Men - Men's Attitudes and Behaviors

By 2040, Melanoma, the most severe form of skin cancer, will be the #1 cancer among men.

When we first started Get Mr. Dr. G and I were shocked at how little scientific research to date had focused on men and skin cancer.

The majority of existing research didn't tackle questions like: "what characteristics could help men reduce their risk significantly", and "how do men's attitudes towards tanning impact their SPF compliance".

So we began studying and investing the topic ourselves. And what we found was shocking.

Only 17% of men use sunscreen on a daily basis.

Those rates are significantly behind women's. Daily sunscreen use is essential, and while most women can find sunscreen in a majority of their makeup products, men historically have not had the same habits as women when it comes to applying SPF outside of summer months.

Daily sunscreen use can help reduce skin cancer rates by nearly 40% and Melanoma by 50%.  We found that the main motivators for men to use sunscreen every day were to (1) reduce their risk of skin cancer and (2) to feel and look younger.

This month, we published the results of our second article in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health: Attitudes and Behaviors That Impact Skin Cancer Risk among Men.

This article focused on men's perceptions of tanning (responses below).

"The majority of men reported riskier perceptions of tanning for most tanning perceptions. The discrepancy was largest for the statement that “most of my friends think a tan is a good thing”, where four times more men agreed or strongly agreed with the statement than disagreed or strongly disagreed."

The table below calls out that 32% of men feel more healthy with a tan and nearly 30% feel that a tan makes them feel better about themselves. The research discussion then focuses on, if we can't immediately change perceptions about tanning, perhaps we can and should focus on changing behaviors regarding those perceptions.

While there is still a lot of questions remaining, we're excited to continue diving deeper into our research, learning more, and providing products and services that more men can look forward to using, because they are easy, safe and effective.