The Dermatology Nurses’ Association (DNA) Annual Convention, Monumental Strides in Dermatology Excellence, will be held February 27 to March 2, 2019 at the Marriott Wardman Park, Washington, DC. This conference will have 4 educational tracts and 3 post-convention workshops. The educational tracks include Medical/Pediatrics, Surgical/Cutaneous Oncology, Aesthetics, and Professional Development. Many excellent speakers will present at the conference. A sampling of the topics includes pemphigus, acne, what’s new in the drug cabinet, Mohs surgery, navigating advocacy beyond the bedside, and skin of color. Make sure to save the date for this conference, you won’t want to miss it!
Featured Session: Understanding and Predicting Indoor Tanning Cessation Using Multi-Theory Model of Behavior Change
Thirty-five percent of US adults and 59% of college students have reported using indoor tanning beds in their lifetime.1 According to one report, nearly 7.8 million adult women and 1.9 million adult men in the US tan indoors.2 There is strong evidence that indoor tanning increases the risk of melanoma skin cancer. A total of 91,270 cases of melanoma, with 9320 deaths, were recorded in 2018.3 Annual costs associated with melanoma were estimated at $8.1 billion.4
Given the high rates of indoor tanning, it is imperative to develop effective interventions for indoor tanning cessation. To date, a relatively limited number of published studies have focused on indoor tanning cessation. Moreover, no study has yet assessed the utility of the newly proposed multitheory model (MTM), a construct used to understand health behavior change, to understand and predict indoor tanning cessation.
In a presentation at the 2019 DNA Annual Convention, Vinayak K. Nahar, MD, PhD, MS, FRSPH, used the MTM of health behavior change to examine what is required for the cessation of indoor tanning behavior and important considerations for sustaining this behavioral change.
MTM is a fourth-generation, newly developed theoretical framework that addresses both one-time and long-term behavior change. According to MTM, health behavior change has 2 components: initiation of the health behavior change, and sustenance, or continuation, of the behavior change.
The following characterize the MTM for health behavior change:
- It is about health behavior change
- It is exclusive for health education
- It has empirically tested “constructs” for health behavior change
- It is parsimonious
- Its constructs are modifiable
- It caters to both one-time and long-term behavior change
- It is applicable across cultures
- Precise and brief interventions can be designed
Different constructs are important in influencing initiation and sustenance of behavioral change. For behavioral change initiation, these include participatory dialogue, behavioral confidence, and changes in the physical environment. For behavioral change sustenance, constructs include emotional transformation, practice for change, and change in the social environment.4
MTM is a theory that continues to be empirically tested in cross-sectional and experimental designs across health behaviors and across different target populations in diverse settings. Prior cross-sectional studies applying MTM include predicting physical activity behavior change in young adults, predicting fruits and vegetables consumption change among African American women, and predicting low salt intake in Nigerian hypertensives. Experimental studies using MTM include changing physical activity behavior in African American women and water pipe smoking reduction in male adolescent students in Iran.
In his research, Dr Nahar used MTM to examine our understanding of indoor tanning cessation behavior change. His research questions include:
- How valid and reliable are scales measuring MTM model domains within the sample of college students?
- What are the direct effects of participatory dialogue, behavioral confidence, and changes in physical environment on initiation of indoor tanning cessation among college students?
- What are the direct effects of emotional transformation, practice for change, and changes in social environment on sustenance of indoor tanning cessation among college students?
Dr Nahar used a descriptive cross-sectional study of over 150 frequent users of indoor tanning beds at a large southern university. He concluded that MTM is a robust theoretical model that can be utilized to help guide future interventions of indoor tanning cessation.
His findings, along with a discussion about the multitheory model of health behavior change, will be presented at the 2019 DNA Annual Convention March 1, 9 am-10 am.
References
1. Wehner MR, Chren MM, Nameth D, et al. International prevalence of indoor tanning: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Dermatol. 2014;150(4):390-400. doi: 10.001/jamadermatol.2013.6896
2. Guy GP, Berkowitz Z, Holman DM, Hartman AM. Recent changes in the prevalence of and factors associated with frequency of indoor tanning among US adults. JAMA Dermatol. 2015;151(11):1256-1259. doi: 10.001/jamadermatol.2015.1568
3. Siegel RL, Miller KD, Jemal A. Cancer statistics, 2018. CA Cancer J Clin. 2018;68(1):7-30. doi: 10.3322/caac.21442
4. Sharma M. Theoretical Foundations of Health Education and Health Promotion. 3rd ed. Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett; 2017.
