Sun Protection in Renal Transplant Recipients: Urgent Need for Education

Abstract

Background: Renal transplant recipients (RTR) are considered as a high-risk group of skin cancer development. Objective: The aim of the present studywas to find out the knowledge about the harmfulness of sunlight and the methods of sun protection among RTR. Material and Methods: 151 RTR (91 males and 60 females) were surveyed using a specially designed questionnaire. Results: The knowledge about the danger of sunlight exposure among RTR appeared to be very unsatisfactory. Only 40.4% of patients knew that the development of skin cancer is connected with the exposure to sunlight. Moreover, only 68.2% of investigated individuals considered RTR as a high-risk group of skin cancer development. Although 74.8% of patients were informed about the necessity of sun protection, only 11.3% could explain what the number of the SPF (sun protection factor) means. Females significantly more often knew that RTR are especially predisposed to the development of skin cancers (p = 0.0001) and significantly more frequently could explain what the SPF number means (p = 0.006). 72.8% of RTR (females significantly more often, p = 0.02) made efforts to avoid sunlight irradiation. However, only 5.3% of the examined patients routinely used creams with SPF (females significantly more often, p < 0.0001). More than a half of the patients (62.3%) did not apply any sun protection. Conclusions: The present study revealed the urgent necessity of education concerning the harmfulness of sunlight and the methods of sun protection among RTR. Moreover, it is postulated that every patient should be routinely examined by a dermatologist in a dedicated transplant patient clinic.

Sun Protection Behavior in Organ Transplant Recipients in Queensland, Australia

“…Previous studies have described sun protection measures in OTRs in countries with lower levels of solar ultraviolet radiation than subtropical Australia, including the USA, Canada, Northern Europe and Iran [5,6,7,8,13,14,15]. While their categorization of sun protection measures varied, the frequency of ever- versus never-use of a particular measure was lower than in Queensland OTRs.…”

“…The prevalence of these sun protection measures has been studied extensively in the general Australian population [4] but similar information has not been presented for higher-risk OTRs. In North America and Europe, studies of organ transplant patients suggest that, in general, their use of sun protection measures is suboptimal [5,6,7,8]. …”

Skin Cancer Knowledge and Preventive Behaviors among Patients with a Recent History of Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma

“…Substantial knowledge gaps were previously reported in studies on Italian melanoma patients [21], on persons at higher risk for developing melanoma in the UK [22] and also on transplant recipients [23]. A survey on awareness and knowledge about NMSC conducted on the general population in 7 countries [5] showed that 42% of Italians rarely or never applied a sunscreen when outside, with only Spain (47%) and the USA (49%) reporting a more frequent lack of sunscreen use.…”

Continuous Education for Renal Transplant Recipients

“…We have previously shown that continuous education for 6 months is effective in increasing our patients' compliance to sunscreen use as well as in encouraging them for self skin examination. 1 However, the education needs to be emphasized repeatedly as some attitudes are strong and hard to change [3,4] .…”