Knowledge, attitude and practice regarding solar ultraviolet exposure among medical university students in Northeast China

•The eye damage from UVR had not received much attention among Chinese.•Participants were more likely to reduce, not increase, sun exposure.•Skin protection was overemphasized while vitamin D production by UVB was ignored.•Sun umbrella is a special and popular method of sun protection among Chinese women.•Only a small fraction of participants thought that tanning was attractive.

To assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding the health effects of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) and sun exposure among medical university students in Northeast China, 385 subjects were investigated on October 2013 using a self-administered multiple-choice questionnaire. Most of the subjects knew the effects of UVR on skin cancer (95.6%) and sunburn (92.2%), but fewer knew of the eye damage that can result from UVR (27.8% cataract and 3.1% pterygium). Correspondingly, the main purpose of adopting sun protection was considered to be ‘preventing sunburn’ (55.4%), but ‘preventing eye damage’ was the least (1.8%). In actual behaviour, the eyes received the least protection as well. Although knowing the effects of UVR on vitamin D synthesis (87.3%), 66.8% of participants never or seldom increased sun exposure. Compared to men, women were more likely to reduce sun exposure (P < 0.001). Only a small fraction of subjects (6.6%) thought that tanning was attractive. Considering the response variability to UVR in people with different skin colours, different sun protection programs should be provided. In China, especially in the North, the public should be educated to moderately increase sun exposure to maintain adequate vitamin D status while also protecting against eye damage from UVR.