Popular Gyms Undermining Health with Tanning Beds, UConn Researcher Says

Source: UConn Today, February 2020

The end of 2019 brings with it holiday gatherings, school vacations, and the annual tradition of New Year’s resolutions – with some of the most common resolutions being to exercise more and lose weight. Popular gym chains across the country capitalize on the broad desire to get healthy in the New Year with persuasive post-holiday marketing campaigns, but they’re also undermining public health warnings about the dangers of indoor tanning, according to a new study from UConn researchers published today by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open.

“An interesting study was published a few years ago that found an association between physical activity and increased risk for melanoma,” said Sherry Pagoto, a professor in the Department of Allied Health Sciences and director of the UConn Center for mHealth and Social Media who is the lead author of today’s study. “Exercise is typically associated with reduced risk for cancer, so it was surprising to see an association with increased risk for melanoma. Around the same time we began to notice some of the large gym chains offering tanning beds. This got us wondering just how many gyms are offering tanning beds and about the implications of marketing tanning beds to physically active people who we now know are at increased risk for melanoma.”