Cross-sectional Association Between Walking and Sunburn: A Potential Trade-off Between Cancer Prevention and Risk Factors

Background: The positive association between physical activity and sunburn is a health behavior trade-off between the health benefits of physical activity and increased risk of skin cancer.

Purpose: We assessed walking, which is a common source of physical activity, and the prevalence of sunburn.

Methods: This research used the 2015 National Health Interview Survey of adults (N = 26,632), age ≥ 18 years. We defined four exclusive categories of walking: (a) those who reported not walking; (b) only transportation (to get some place, such as work, a store, or public transit stop); (c) only leisure (such as for fun, relaxation, or exercise); and (d) both categories. We estimated the adjusted prevalence of sunburn by walking category and separately for walking duration; we stratified by gender and sun sensitivity.

Results: The adjusted sunburn prevalence was not different between walking categories for women, but it was for men. Specifically, prevalence was lower for men who reported not walking, 34.1% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 32.2%-36.1%) compared to 38.8% (95% CI: 36.5%-41.2%) who walked for both purposes (p = .003). Walking duration was not associated with sunburn prevalence.

Conclusion: We could not determine whether sunburn occurred during walking trips because the questions were not asked as such. However, the results suggest that walking, unlike leisure-time physical activity (such as exercise, sports, or physically active hobbies), may not generally be associated with sunburn, except for the higher sunburn prevalence for men who walked for both leisure and transportation purposes.