Background/Purpose: Research suggests that youth proximity to tanning salons may promote use; however, little is known about tanning salon proximity to schools. We assessed the proximity of tanning salons to schools in urban versus rural/suburban communities across Worcester County, Massachusetts (population > 800K). To put findings in context, we compared school proximity to tanning salons to school proximity to McDonald's restaurants, a large franchise that also caters to young people.
Materials & Methods: Accessibility was measured by ArcGIS 10.2 Network Analyzer (ESRI, Redlands, CA, USA) and the most current road network data layer from Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT).
Results: A total of 145 schools were observed in the study area, of which about 39% of schools were within 1 mile from a tanning salon. Urban schools (53.41%) had a higher proportion within 1 mile of a tanning salon than rural/suburban schools (17.54%; P < .001). More schools (39.31%) were within 1 mile of a tanning salon than schools within 1 mile of a McDonald's (22.70%; P < .001).
Conclusions: Schools may be particularly impactful for implementing skin cancer prevention programing.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:etsu-works-3882 |
| Date | 01 March 2018 |
| Creators | Nahar, Vinayak K., Rosenthal, Meagen, Lemon, Stephenie C., Kane, Kevin, Cheng, Jie, Oleski, Jessica L., Li, Wenjun, Hillhouse, Joel J., Pagoto, Sherry L. |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | ETSU Faculty Works |
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