WASHINGTON — If worry about skin cancer doesn’t make you slather on sunscreen, maybe vanity will: New research provides some of the strongest evidence to date that near-daily sunscreen use can slow the aging of your skin.
Researchers in sunny Australia used a unique study to measure whether sunscreens really help. Participants had casts made of the top of their hands to measure fine lines and wrinkles that signal sun-caused aging.
The study of 900 people under 55 compared those randomly assigned to use sunscreen daily with those who used it when they deemed it necessary.
After 4½ years, those who used sunscreen regularly had younger-looking hands, with 24 percent less skin aging than those who used sunscreen only some of the time.
Both young adults and the middle-aged experienced skin-saving effects, concluded the study, financed by Australia’s government and published Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
“These are meaningful cosmetic benefits,” lead scientist Dr. Adele Green of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research said in an e-mail interview. More importantly, she added, less sun-caused aging decreases the risk of skin cancer in the long term.
