Awareness on the Risk of Ultraviolet Exposure Regarding Skin Cancers and Protective Behavior Among the Youngsters in Albania

Received April 12, 2015; Accepted June 13, 2015 Abstract: Incidence of skin cancers is rising rapidly all over the world. Although ultraviolet exposure is one of the main risk factors, youngsters still like to get suntanned and therefore exposed to natural or artificial ultraviolet radiation. This means that implementing good protective behavior in the youngsters could play a great role in lowering the incidence of these cancers. For this reason we conducted a study to evaluate the knowledge on skin cancers and Malignant Melanoma, awareness on the risk of ultraviolet exposure and behavior of 261 students of the university, with a mean age 22 years. Surprisingly, although the students reflected in 93 % of the participants a good knowledge and 44.8% of the students considered ultraviolet exposure as the most important risk factor, their protective behavior was not so satisfactory, only 16.9% of them always used sunscreen. The main reasons for not using protective measures were because they desired to have a suntan or because they considered it tiresome. In The main sources of information were the TV/Media/Newspapers and the Dermatologist. Better knowledge and protective behavior can improve the perspective of these diseases. Informative campaigns with the dermatologists and other health care professionals in the center can be of great impact to motivate the youngsters to implement positive protective behavior.