Table 3.
Motivations (and frequency of responses) for quitting indoor tanning
| Themes (N) | Supporting participant quotations |
|---|---|
| Health-based reasons | |
| i. Concerns about skin cancer/cancer (13) | “It’s just more of the research that has been done on the links between tanning beds and.... the cancer that was developing because of tanning beds.” “Well, I’ve been trying not to because, uh, skin cancer does run in my family…My aunt had melanoma, and, I’m pretty fair skinned, so I’m pretty… I have a lot of moles, so I’m pretty prone to, I guess, GETTING skin cancer? So… um, so I’m kind of feeling guilty, I guess? (Chuckles) So, I tried to stop.” “I mean, I do have some concerns about skin cancer in the future, so that’s part of why I don’t feel the need to be tan anymore.” “And, you know, now that I’m older and I see the effects of tanning beds, and I see, you know, um, I mean, young people getting skin cancer, and the effects that it causes? I mean, I… I don’t… you know, to me it’s not worth it. It’s not worth, you know, having that… that “glow” or whatever… um, and risk, um, skin cancer. I mean, I’ve had some moles that I’ve had removed, BECAUSE I was worried, um, you know, because their shape and the coloring of them? And, that also concerns me that, you know, I was getting those BECAUSE of a tanning bed.” “…because I was a lifeguard when I was a teenager, for about five years in the summertime? And, I never wore sun screen, so I was already at a high risk of skin cancer, and I didn’t want to compound that by going to a tanning bed…” |
| ii. Found a mole/concerns about skin damage (3) | “Well, I found a mole on my left breast that I know has not been seeing the daylight, and, I had to have it removed. And I’m lucky enough that it was benign, but, um, that really opened my eyes that… you know, that could only have been caused by the tanning bed.” |
| iii. Concerns about wrinkles and aging skin (3) | “I think it’s more important to… protect my skin from aging, mostly, is kind of what I think about when I think about the sun damage?” “I didn’t want to, you know have old ugly wrinkly skin when I was older.” |
| Tangible reasons | |
| i. Financial reasons/costs (6) | “Well, it got pretty expensive. Um, which was probably the first reason?” |
| ii. Time issues (2) | “Um, well, yeah. I mean, I have kids, and so it was taking time – I was trying to do it after work and then go pick ‘em up from daycare – and it was taking away time from them, so, that was another important reason to stop.” |
| iii. Moved to a different location (2) | “Well, I… um, I moved to Arizona (chuckles). So, there’s really (laughing) no longer a need to go tanning, because it’s pretty much sunny every day.” |
| Social influence | |
| i. Pressures from parents/family (5) | “Oh, yeah. Mostly from my father, um, ‘cause he’s also had, um, not melanoma, but he’s had some skin cancer before and, um… so, he’s always getting on me to not do it.” “So, she [Mother] was always… I don’t even know if she knew that I ever used a tanning bed, but, she was always, you know, definitely was very discouraging about it, um, you know, or, you know, talked about it like, in terms of, “Don’t ever use those,” or (chuckles), you know, “That’s not… it’s not wise to use ‘em.” And, AND talked about in the future that my…my skin type, and because of our family history, that I probably WILL be prone to the risk of skin cancer?” |
| ii. Pressures from friends/coworkers (2) | “Um, well, I got a lot of… I work at a hospital, and got a lot of flack for usin’ them as we refer to them – “The Cancer Tube.” And so, I decided (chuckles) to stop doin’ that, and then just the cost of doing it.” |
| Limited utility | |
| i. Grew out of it (6) | “I’m not as, uh… too particular about my appearance as I was when I was younger, when I used them more frequently.” “I think maybe I grew out of it a little bit? It’s that possibility, you know… after I got away from campus and college and listen to what everybody’s doing, it was kind of like, ‘You know? I don’t really need to do this anymore.’” “Oh, I don’t feel the need to be tan anymore…I don’t care what I look like, I guess?” “Well, you know, when I was younger, I mean, I tanned, of course, for proms and weddings, and… I mean, after that I really found no need for it?” |
| ii. Didn’t enjoy tanning beds anyways (2) | “I never really enjoyed it very much.” “Um, I just wasn’t very comfortable with them.” |