Skin cancer screening and prevention in the primary care setting - National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey 1997

OBJECTIVE: To describe skin cancer prevention and screening activities in t he primary care setting and to compare these findings to other cancer scree ning and prevention activities. DESIGN:Descriptive study. SETTING/PATIENTS: National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey 1997 data on offi ce-based physician visits to family practitioners and internists. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Data were obtained on 784 primary care visit s to 109 family practitioners and 61 internists. We observed that the frequ ency of skin cancer prevention and screening activities in the primary care setting was much lower than other cancer screening and prevention activiti es. Skin examination was reported at only 15.8% of all visits (17.4% for fa mily practitioners vs 13.6% for internists, P > .1). Far other cancer scree ning, the frequencies were as follows: breast examination, 30.3%: Papanicol aou test. 25.3%: pelvic examination, 27.6%; and rectal examination, 17.9%. Skin cancer prevention in the form of education and counseling was reported at 2.3% of these visits (2.9% for family practitioners vs 1.5% for interni sts, P > .1), while education on breast self-examination, diet and nutritio n, tobacco use, and exercise was 13.0%, 25.3%, 5.7%, and 17.9%, respectivel y. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study indicate that the proportion of prim ary care visits in which skin cancer screening and prevention occurs is low . Strategies to increase skin cancer prevention and screening by family pra ctitioners and internists need to be considered.