Does intermittent sun exposure cause basal cell carcinoma? a case‐control study in Western Australia

Abstract

Our report deals with the relationship of pattern and timing of sun exposure to basal cell carcinoma (BCC) in a population‐based case‐control study conducted in Western Australia in 1988. The main measure of intermittent exposure was based on the amount of exposure on non‐working days relative to that over the whole week. Outdoor recreational activities, holidays and sunburn were also considered to be markers of intermittent exposure. We observed a statistically significant increase in risk of BCC with increasing proportion of weekly sun exposure obtained at the weekend, especially in late teenage (OR = 3.9, 95% CI 1.9‐7.8 for maximum intermittency of exposure), exposure of the site of skin ..