Prevalence of skin cancer varies for sexual minority, heterosexual adults

With respect to their lifetime prevalence of skin cancer, sexual minority (SM) adults differ across racial and ethnic groups and among males and females, according to a study published online July 17 in JAMA Dermatology.

Katelyn J. Rypka, from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and colleagues examined differences in the lifetime prevalence of skin cancer among U.S. adult females and males by sexual orientation in a cross-sectional study using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System from Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 31, 2021. Of the 1,512,400 participants studied, 53.2, 2.6, 42.2 and 2.0 percent were heterosexual females, SM females, heterosexual males, and SM males, respectively.

The researchers found that the lifetime prevalence of skin cancer was higher for SM males versus heterosexual males overall (7.4 versus 6.8 percent; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.16), especially among Hispanic males (4.0 versus 1.6 percent; aOR, 3.81) and non-Hispanic Black males (1.0 versus 0.5 percent; aOR, 2.18). Compared with heterosexual females, lifetime prevalence rates were lower among SM females for non-Hispanic Whites (7.8 versus 8.5 percent; aOR, 0.86), while rates were higher among Hispanic SM females (2.1 versus 1.8 percent; aOR, 2.46) and non-Hispanic Black SM females (1.8 versus 0.5 percent; aOR, 2.33).

“Future research and public health interventions should consider race and ethnicity and individual sexual identity when addressing skin cancer and related risk behaviors, with a particular emphasis on Black and Hispanic SM females and males and White gay males,” the authors write.

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