Sunbathing and sunlamp exposure: awareness and risk amongItalian teenagers

Adolescence represents a critical period of life during which ultraviolet (UV) radiation can increase skin cancer risk. ‘Tanorexia’ is a new term used to describe an intense desire to be tanned, that multiple studies have tried to classify as a dysmorphic disorder, deriving from an obsessive and distressing desire to be suntanned (1).According to Molly M.Warthan et al. (2), we consider tanorexia as the repetitive behavior of an individual with regard to UV exposure.We have analyzed attitudes to indoor tanning among young people aged from 16 to 19, selected from a high school in Naples (Italy) to identify the risk of this disorder among Italian adolescents.