Sunburn, sun exposure, and sun sensitivity in the Study of Nevi in Children

To examine the joint effect of sun exposure and sunburn on nevus counts (on the natural logarithm scale; log nevi) and the role of sun sensitivity.

We describe an analysis of cross-sectional data from 443 children enrolled in the prospective Study of Nevi in Children. To evaluate the joint effect, we partitioned the sum of squares because of interaction between sunburn and sun exposure into orthogonal components representing (1) monotonic increase in log nevi with increasing sun exposure (rate of increase of log nevi depends on sunburn), and (2) nonmonotonic pattern.

In unadjusted analyses, there was a marginally significant monotonic pattern of interaction (P = .08). In adjusted analyses, sun exposure was associated with higher log nevi among those without sunburn (P < .001), but not among those with sunburn (P = .14). Sunburn was independently associated with log nevi (P = .02), even though sun sensitivity explained 29% (95% confidence interval: 2%-56%, P = .04) of its effect. Children with high sun sensitivity and sunburn had more nevi, regardless of sun exposure.

A program of increasing sun protection in early childhood as a strategy for reducing nevi, when applied to the general population, may not equally benefit everyone.