Americans and Cubans, at greater risk of skin cancer
posted in Research Findings |North America and Cuba are the places of the world where skin cancer poses a greater threat to residents, according to figures published by Forbes magazine, which takes into account from health statistics to cultural factors.
“Cultural beliefs may play an important role in the ranking by region, since many Americans still tend to get a good tan,” says the magazine in its online edition.
Factors such as the latitude of the place of residence, skin pigmentation, clothing habits, and local standards of beauty, beliefs and customs can alter holiday the chances of contracting a disease related to sun exposure.
Given these factors and data from the World Health Organization (WHO) on number of patients with diseases attributable to UV, the publication believes the United States, Canada and Cuba make up the region where people are more exposed to these risks.
“While many Americans can not abandon the idea that a tan makes them look healthier, in Asian countries like Japan and China is far less culturally acceptable and even is associated with low socioeconomic status,” said Forbes Chief of Department Dermatology healthcare provider Henry Ford.
This region follows Eastern European countries like Hungary, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as explicitly cites the publication.
The third most dangerous region of Western Europe would be followed by that formed by Australia, Asia Pacific and East Asia, and finally into Central Asia.
The system used to produce this ranking partly distorts the results because not grouped by region and country, so that made up of New Zealand, Australia and Japan is not in a position deserve as high as the top two states separately, as the last one shows a very low incidence of skin-related problems.
However, Australia and New Zealand have the highest incidence and death records for melanomas in the world, since the risk of developing such a tumor is in both countries, 1 in 24 men and 1 in 34 women under 75 years.