A new study found that the minorities have less awareness about skin cancer compared to white people.
Researchers from the NYU Langone Medical Center led by Dorota Z. Korta recruited 152 people who went to a dermatology clinic at a public hospital in New York City. They were asked to answer a survey form which measures their awareness regarding skin cancer, its symptoms, and warning signs.
Awareness levels are remarkably low among minorities, as the survey results showed that 50 percent of the white respondents were aware that an irregular shape a skin mark is a warning sign of melanoma while only 12 percent of the minorities knew about this. Most of minorities answered "I don't know" for this question.
Also, 71 percent of the white participants were able to identify the changes in size and shape of moles as a characteristic for melanoma. For this question, only 29 percent of the minorities provided the right answer.
Korta told Reuters, "Our findings emphasize the need for improved patient education about characteristics of melanoma, regardless of race."
Statistics show that one in five of 100,000 minorities are diagnosed with melanoma each year, compared to 20 out of 100,000 for white men and 32 out of 100,000 for white women.
Former President of the American Academy of Dermatology and dermatology professor at the New York University Dr. Darrell Rigel told Reuters, "People of all races are equally at risk of getting skin cancer on the palms of their hands or soles of their feet - but those aren't common places for sun exposure."
"For other parts of the body, the chances are much less (among minorities), but you can still get it," he added.
The research has implications on knowledge about skin cancer, and it could surface gaps as to information dissemination particularly to the minorities who has less knowledge about it than whites.
The study was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.
