Total Body Photography as an Aid to Skin Self-examination: A Patient’s Perspective

Abstract

Skin self-examination can help patients who are at high risk for developing melanoma to become more involved in their own surveillance and treatment. 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.