Variations in prevalence of malignant melanoma across global regions and income levels

Summary: Abstract Body: Malignant melanoma exhibits variations in prevalence across global regions and income levels. A comprehensive review of global trends in the disease remains uncommon. Prior work has focused on the incidence of malignant melanoma, especially in the United States, but analyzing prevalence allows us to examine the current burden of disease and evaluate its long-term impact. Using the Global Burden of Disease Study carried out by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, data on the prevalence of malignant melanoma across 204 countries and territories as well as from the years 2017 to 2021 was gathered. Classifications were created by the World Bank to group these areas into four tiers by income: low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high. To determine if there is an overall difference in melanoma prevalence by global income level, a One-Way Analysis of Variance was performed on our data binned into 4 categories, and tested two-sided, two-sample t-tests. There is a statistically significant difference (p<2e-16) generally in prevalence for different amounts of global wealth. Looking at pairwise differences, there is a clear, statistically significant monotonic trend: low income regions have a lower prevalence than lower-middle (p=1.03e-06), lower-middle lower than upper-middle (p=1.89e-06), and upper-middle lower than high (p=5.41e-09). The fact that melanoma prevalence increases consistently with income level suggests that individuals from these backgrounds are more likely to be exposed to risk factors such as sun exposure, frequent use of tanning beds, outdoor activities, and may have greater dermatological health resources. This clear trend provides us a global perspective, emphasizing the need to cater to low-income regions where melanoma detection and care may be less accessible, and justifies future prevention and intervention strategies to tackle these disparities. Ashna Khare¹, Martin Pollack², Eric Yang³, John Griswold¹ 1. Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX, United States. 2. Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States. 3. University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States. Clinical Research: Epidemiology and Observational Research