4 New Recommendations for Behavioral Counseling on Skin Cancer Prevention Getting the best health care means making smart decisions about preventive services. To help doctors and patients decide together whether a preventive service is right for a person’s needs, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) develops recommendations based on reviews of high-quality scientific evidence. In March 2018, the USPSTF released updated recommendations for behavioral counseling on skin cancer prevention.11 The recommendations are outlined in the following recommendation summary. More information is available on the USPSTF website at www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/. Recommendation Summary Population Recommendation Grade (What’s this?) Young adults, adolescents, children, and parents of young children The USPSTF recommends counseling young adults, adolescents, children, and parents of young children about minimizing exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation for persons aged 6 months to 24 years with fair skin types to reduce their risk of skin cancer. B Adults older than 24 years with fair skin types The USPSTF recommends that clinicians selectively offer counseling to adults older than 24 years with fair skin types about minimizing their exposure to UV radiation to reduce the risk of skin cancer. Existing evidence indicates that the net benefit of counseling all adults older than 24 years is small. In determining whether counseling is appropriate in individual cases, patients and clinicians should consider the presence of risk factors for skin cancer. C Adults The USPSTF concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of counseling adults about skin self-examination to prevent skin cancer. I
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