Total Body Photography as an Aid to Skin Self-Examination: A Patient's Perspective.

This study examined the use of total body photography as an aid to skin self-examination from the patients' perspective. A total of 179 individuals at high risk for developing melanoma who had undergone total body photography (60.5% response rate) completed a self-reported questionnaire assessing the frequency of skin self-examination, perceived usefulness of total body photography, and a variety of potential demographic, clinical and psychological factors. Only approximately half of the participants indicated skin self-examination as useful and 78.9% preferred clinical skin examination by a specialist. Finding total body photography useful was associated with having received instructions on how to perform skin self-examination, the use of a (hand)mirror, and confidence to detect changing moles. These findings allow us to develop strategies to further improve patients' self-screening behaviours. PMID: 26315708 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Acta Dermato-Venereologica - Category: Dermatology Authors: Tags: Acta Derm Venereol Source Type: research