A Social Media–Based Public Health Campaign to Reduce Indoor Tanning in High-Risk Populations

•Social media advertisements directed high-risk groups to indoor tanning health information.•Indoor tanning health information advertisements reached 1 million individuals.•This was a successful use of social media influencers in a social marketing context. Indoor tanning beds cause more than 450,00...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	AJPM Focus Vol. 2; no. 3; p. None
Main Authors:	de Vere Hunt, Isabella, Cai, Zhuo Ran, Nava, Vanessa, Admassu, Natnaelle E., Bousheri, Stephanie, Johnson, Tiffani, Tomz, Anna, Thompson, Jessica, Zhang, Lucy, Pagoto, Sherry, Wehner, Mackenzie R., Mathur, Maya B., Linos, Eleni
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States Elsevier Inc 01-09-2023 Elsevier Inc. on behalf of The American Journal of Preventive Medicine Board of Governors Elsevier
Subjects:	cancer prevention health communication Public health skin cancer social media skin cancer cancer prevention health communication social media Public health
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	•Social media advertisements directed high-risk groups to indoor tanning health information.•Indoor tanning health information advertisements reached 1 million individuals.•This was a successful use of social media influencers in a social marketing context. Indoor tanning beds cause more than 450,000 new skin cancers each year, yet their use remains common, with a global indoor tanning prevalence of 10.4%. Social media provides an opportunity for cost-effective, targeted public health messaging. We sought to direct Instagram users at high risk of indoor tanning to accurate health information about the risks of indoor tanning and to reduce indoor tanning bed use. We disseminated a public health campaign on Instagram on April 6–27, 2022 with 34 video and still-image advertisements. We had 2 target audiences at high risk of indoor tanning: women aged 18–30 years in Kentucky, Nebraska, Ohio, or Tennessee interested in indoor tanning and men aged 18–45 years in California interested in indoor tanning. To evaluate the impact of the campaign, we tracked online metrics, including website visits, and conducted an interrupted time-series analysis of foot traffic data in our target states for all tanning salons documented on SafeGraph from January 1, 2018 to 3 months after the campaign. Our indoor tanning health information advertisements appeared on Instagram feeds 9.1 million times, reaching 1.06 million individuals. We received 7,004 views of our indoor tanning health information landing page (Average Time on Page of 56 seconds). We did not identify a significant impact on foot traffic data on tanning salons. We show the successful use of social media advertising to direct high-risk groups to online health information about indoor tanning. Future research quantifying tanning visits before and after indoor tanning interventions is needed to guide future public health efforts.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	2773-0654 2773-0654
DOI:	10.1016/j.focus.2023.100123