Malignant melanoma is as much as 35% more common among people who live in Gothenburg and the region\u2019s coastal municipalities than those who live inland. Researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, have found that the number of malignant melanoma cases in the V\u00e4stra G\u00f6taland region has quadrupled since 1970. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Malignant melanoma has become increasingly common in the Western world over the past few decades. One of the biggest factors has been excessive and unprotected sunbathing despite widespread awareness of the health risks.\u00a0Melanoma takes a long time, sometimes several decades, to develop. For that reason, sunbathing habits from many years ago still affect a person\u2019s risk level.\u00a0According to a new study by researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, the number of melanoma cases in the V\u00e4stra G\u00f6taland region has quadrupled among men and tripled among women since 1970.\u00a0\u201cThis represents a relative increase of more than 3% per year,\u201d says Magdalena Claeson, a researcher at Sahlgrenska Academy who participated in the study. \u201cThe increase in the region was considerably above average for the entire country.\u201d\u00a0The study found that 35% more men and 25% more women developed malignant melanoma in Gothenburg than in the inland municipalities. Fifteen per cent more women developed the disease in the coastal municipalities than inland.\u00a0One explanation is that inhabitants of Gothenburg and the coastal municipalities are exposed to the sun for more hours a day. A 2007 study conducted by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare found that inhabitants of Gothenburg and the coastal municipalities tend to take longer summer holidays in sunny countries and spend more time outdoors when abroad. Meanwhile, they are more likely to work indoors when they are in Sweden.\u00a0\u201cThe latest research suggests that melanoma is caused by this type of intermittent exposure to the sun,\u201d Claeson says. \u201cIn other words, people get sunburned during their summer holiday and spend a lot of time indoors for the rest of the year.\u201d\u00a0The results have convinced the researchers that more preventive resources should be appropriated for the V\u00e4stra G\u00f6taland region, particularly Gothenburg and the coastal municipalities.\u00a0\u201cAmong the measures likely to prove effective are educational initiatives among schoolchildren and sun protection information for people who travel abroad,\u201d Claeson says.\u00a0The article, entitled \u201cIncidence of Cutaneous Melanoma in Western Sweden, 1970-2007,\u201d has been accepted for publication in Melanoma Research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Malignant melanoma is as much as 35% more common among people who live in Gothenburg and the region\u2019s coastal municipalities than those who live inland. Researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, have found that the number of malignant melanoma cases in the V\u00e4stra G\u00f6taland region has quadrupled since 1970. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Malignant melanoma has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-notizie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilmelanoma.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilmelanoma.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilmelanoma.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilmelanoma.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilmelanoma.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilmelanoma.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10758,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilmelanoma.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7635\/revisions\/10758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilmelanoma.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilmelanoma.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilmelanoma.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}