IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v11y2014i1p734-748d31920.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Temporal and Spatial Melanoma Trends in Austria: An Ecological Study

Author

Listed:
  • Daniela Haluza

    (Center for Public Health, Institute of Environmental Health, Medical University of Vienna, Kinderspitalgasse 15, Vienna A-1090, Austria)

  • Stana Simic

    (Institute for Meteorology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Peter-Jordan-Strasse 82, Vienna A-1190, Austria)

  • Hanns Moshammer

    (Center for Public Health, Institute of Environmental Health, Medical University of Vienna, Kinderspitalgasse 15, Vienna A-1090, Austria)

Abstract

Annual solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is mostly determined by latitude and altitude. Over the last decades, increasing UVR ground levels have been observed. Exposure to UVR is associated with a life-time risk to develop melanoma, a malign skin cancer. Thus, we hypothesized that melanoma incidence in Austria is associated with altitude of place of living and time of diagnosis. We investigated this hypothesis in an ecological study by district and year for Austrian melanoma incidence (1990–2010) and mortality (1970–2011) data. As expected, incidence rates increased with altitude (about 2% per 10 m) and year (about 2%). Additionally, melanoma incidence rates were about 50% higher in urban than in rural districts. In contrast, mortality rates decreased with altitude (for males: 0.4% per 10 m, for women: 0.7% per 10 m, respectively). The observed discrepancy between incidence and mortality data could partly be explained by melanoma diagnosis at earlier tumor stage in districts with higher altitude. Possible reasons for this finding include higher awareness of patients, better diagnostic performance of medical professionals working at higher altitudes, or slower tumor growth due to protective effects of sun light-associated vitamin D synthesis.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniela Haluza & Stana Simic & Hanns Moshammer, 2014. "Temporal and Spatial Melanoma Trends in Austria: An Ecological Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:11:y:2014:i:1:p:734-748:d:31920
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/1/734/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/1/734/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hélène Sancho-Garnier & Bruno Pereira & Pierre Césarini, 2012. "A Cluster Randomized Trial to Evaluate a Health Education Programme “Living with Sun at School”," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-17, July.
    2. Daniel J. O’Keefe & Daisy Wu, 2012. "Gain-Framed Messages Do Not Motivate Sun Protection: A Meta-Analytic Review of Randomized Trials Comparing Gain-Framed and Loss-Framed Appeals for Promoting Skin Cancer Prevention," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-13, June.
    3. Simona Surdu & Edward F Fitzgerald & Michael S Bloom & Francis P Boscoe & David O Carpenter & Richard F Haase & Eugen Gurzau & Peter Rudnai & Kvetoslava Koppova & Joëlle Févotte & Giovanni Leonardi & , 2013. "Occupational Exposure to Ultraviolet Radiation and Risk of Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer in a Multinational European Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(4), pages 1-9, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Daniela Haluza & Markus Schwab & Stana Simic & Renate Cervinka & Hanns Moshammer, 2015. "Perceived Relevance of Educative Information on Public (Skin) Health: Results of a Representative, Population-Based Telephone Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-15, November.
    2. Andrzej Tukiendorf & Grażyna Kamińska-Winciorek & Marcus Daniel Lancé & Katarzyna Olszak-Wąsik & Zbigniew Szczepanowski & Iwona Kulik-Parobczy & Edyta Idalia Wolny-Rokicka, 2021. "Recent Malignant Melanoma Epidemiology in Upper Silesia, Poland. A Decade-Long Study Focusing on the Agricultural Sector," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-10, October.
    3. Michael Schrempf & Daniela Haluza & Stana Simic & Stefan Riechelmann & Kathrin Graw & Gunther Seckmeyer, 2016. "Is Multidirectional UV Exposure Responsible for Increasing Melanoma Prevalence with Altitude? A Hypothesis Based on Calculations with a 3D-Human Exposure Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-9, September.
    4. Hanns Moshammer & Stana Simic & Daniela Haluza, 2016. "UV “Indices”—What Do They Indicate?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-10, October.
    5. Olaf Gefeller & Wolfgang Uter & Annette B. Pfahlberg, 2016. "Protection from Ultraviolet Radiation during Childhood: The Parental Perspective in Bavaria," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-11, October.
    6. Daniela Haluza & Stana Simic & Jan Höltge & Renate Cervinka & Hanns Moshammer, 2014. "Connectedness to Nature and Public (Skin) Health Perspectives: Results of a Representative, Population-Based Survey among Austrian Residents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-16, January.
    7. Hanns Moshammer & Stana Simic & Daniela Haluza, 2017. "UV-Radiation: From Physics to Impacts," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-5, February.
    8. Daniela Haluza & Stana Simic & Hanns Moshammer, 2016. "Sunbed Use Prevalence and Associated Skin Health Habits: Results of a Representative, Population-Based Survey among Austrian Residents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-13, February.
    9. Daniela Haluza & Stana Simic & Hanns Moshammer, 2016. "Sun Exposure Prevalence and Associated Skin Health Habits: Results from the Austrian Population-Based UVSkinRisk Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, January.
    10. Hanns Moshammer & Michael Poteser & Lisbeth Weitensfelder, 2022. "COVID-19: Regional Differences in Austria," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-18, January.
    11. Olaf Gefeller & Jiang Li & Wolfgang Uter & Annette B. Pfahlberg, 2014. "The Impact of Parental Knowledge and Tanning Attitudes on Sun Protection Practice for Young Children in Germany," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-14, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniela Haluza & Markus Schwab & Stana Simic & Renate Cervinka & Hanns Moshammer, 2015. "Perceived Relevance of Educative Information on Public (Skin) Health: Results of a Representative, Population-Based Telephone Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-15, November.
    2. Pokharel, Manusheela & Jensen, Jakob D. & Taylor-Burton, Sophia & King, Andy J. & John, Kevin K. & Upshaw, Sean, 2023. "Temporal frames, temporal focus, and behavioral expectations: The persuasive impact of near and distant threats," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:11:y:2014:i:1:p:734-748:d:31920. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.