Prevalence and associated factors of skin cancer in aged nursing home residents: A multicenter prevalence study
Open accessAbstract
Non-melanoma-skin cancer is an emerging clinical problem in the elderly, fair skinned population which predominantly affects patients aged older than 70 years. Its steady increase in incidence rates and morbidity is paralleled by related medical costs. Despite the fact that many elderly patients are in need of care and are living in nursing homes, specific data on the prevalence of skin cancer in home care and the institutional long-term care setting is currently lacking. A representative multicenter prevalence study was conducted in a random sample of ten institutional long-term care facilities in the federal state of Berlin, Germany. In total, n = 223 residents were included. Actinic keratoses, the precursor lesions of invasive cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma were the most common epithelial skin lesions (21.1%, 95% CI 16.2 to 26.9). Non-melanoma skin cancer was diagnosed in 16 residents (7.2%, 95% CI 4.5 to 11.3). None of the residents had a malignant melanoma. Only few bivariate associations were detected between non-melanoma skin cancer and demographic, biographic and functional characteristics. Male sex was significantly associated with actinic keratosis whereas female sex was associated with non-melanoma skin cancer. Smoking was associated with an increased occurrence of non-melanoma skin cancer. Regular dermatology check-ups in nursing homes would be needed but already now due to financial limitations, lack of time in daily clinical practice and limited number of practising dermatologists, it is not the current standard. With respect to the worldwide growing aging population new programs and decisions are required. Overall, primary health care professionals should play a more active role in early diagnosis of skin cancer in nursing home residents. Dermoscopy courses, web-based or smartphone-based applications and teledermatology may support health care professionals to provide elderly nursing home residents an early diagnosis of skin cancer.
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There are still not enough dermatologists to treat the population, especially in remote areas.
“there are still not enough dermatologists to treat the population, especially in remote areas”
From Revolutionizing dermatopathology using AI in skin diagnostics: scoping review (2026) · cites this paper as [4]
The Discussion (Interpretation; page not provided) identifies insufficient numbers of dermatologists as a challenge to providing regular dermatology visits in nursing homes. It does not address dermatologist availability for the general population or say the shortage is especially acute in remote areas. (LLM, conf=0.87)
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- Authors
- Akdeniz, M., Hahnel, E., Ulrich, C., Blume-Peytavi, U., & Kottner, J.
- Affiliations
- Clinical Research Center for Hair and Skin Science (DE)
- Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Kottner, Jan
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2019-04-22
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- e0215379
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6476496
- OpenAlex
- W2942331517
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 2.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- correction (2019-07-25)
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Refubium (Universitätsbibliothek der Freien Universität Berlin) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Universitätsbibliothek der FU Berlin Hochschulschriftenstelle u. Dokumentenserver (cc-by)
- Funders
- Galderma Pharma SA
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Nonmelanoma Skin Cancer Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Dermatology › Skin Protection and Aging
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Geriatric Care and Nursing Homes
- Keywords
- non-melanoma skin cancer, actinic keratosis, nursing home residents, long-term care, older adults, prevalence, risk factors, smoking, sex differences, early diagnosis, teledermatology, dermoscopy, cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Berlin, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Health Services for the Aged, Humans, Long-Term Care, Male, Nursing Homes, Skin Diseases, Skin Neoplasms, Incidence, Prevalence, Keratosis, Actinic
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