Youth, affluence tied to far higher melanoma risk

Researchers were surprised to find that UV exposure ranked lower as a risk factor than something considerably less intuitive when examining instances of deadly forms of skin cancer- young, rich women were at a far higher risk of developing the deadly condition than their less-affluent counterparts, despite similar amounts of sun exposure in the two groups.

In a nutshell, researchers found affluence to be a bigger risk factor than UV exposure in the two groups:

“That was a surprise to us,” says study co-researcher Christina A. Clarke, PhD, MPH, of Stanford University and the Cancer Prevention Institute of California. “We thought UV radiation exposure would be a more important predictor of melanoma risk than socioeconomic status, but that is not what we found.”

The study did not break new ground- affluence has been linked to skin cancer before, despite generally higher rates of “lifestyle-related cancers” among the socioneconomically disadvantaged- but it was described as the most “rigorous” study to date examining the strange correlation. Per WebMD:

Among women living in neighborhoods with the highest UV radiation levels, melanoma rates were 70% higher for those living in the highest income neighborhoods compared to the lowest.

One theory posited is that younger, wealthier women have “more time to tan.”