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Sydney, May 18 (IANS) People tend to overestimate the darkness of their natural, non-tanned skin.The researchers identifying the pattern have called it 'the dark shift' and believe it may have important implications for how well skin cancer risk messages are heeded.The findings are based on a study involving nearly 300 University of Otago students.Study leader Tony Reeder of the Cancer Society Social and Behavioural Research Unit at Otago said the pattern emerged after comparing the students' self-reported 'natural, non-tanned skin colour' to objective measurements taken with a special instrument called a spectrophotometer.Among the findings were that 36 percent of those reporting that they had 'fair skin' actually fell into the range for 'very fair skin', while just over 77 percent of those believing they were of 'medium skin' colour actually belonged to the 'fair skin' category.Study participants who considered their natural skin colour to be 'olive' also strongly overestimated, with 71 percent falling into lighter categories. Of those who rated themselves as having dark skin, 58 percent were classified as belonging to a lighter category.Reeder says that the study findings have the potential to impact significantly on health.'The link between skin colour and health outcomes related to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure is well established, with light skin colour being associated with increased risk of skin cancers, and dark skin colour with increased risk of diseases related to vitamin D deficiency.'If people have an inaccurate perception of their risk, then they are unlikely to respond appropriately to messages about sun protection, which may help to explain why people continue to get sunburned,' Reeder says, according to an Otago release.These findings were published in the May edition of the American Association for Cancer Research journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.
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