To feel personally concerned with a risk, one needs to experience it. OBJECTIVES: The ICARE programme's objective is to asses patients' knowledge of the consequences of sun exposure. METHODS: Every patient coming to an outpatient pharmacy in order to obtain advice or treatment following a sunburn was remitted a questionnaire assessing their knowledge of the consequences of sun exposure. RESULTS: Men and women act differently towards sun exposure. If 41% expose themselves more than 2 hours per day (W 40%, M 43%) and if more than 50% expose themselves between 11h00 and 16h00, then more than 70% do it after 16h00. The only difference concerns sun exposure before 11h00, for which 35% of women and only 19% of men are concerned (p=0.03). Concerning sun protection with protective skin lotions, 59% of women report applying them regularly vs. 33% of men (p=0.003). The back and arms are the most often expressed localisation sunburns for women (50% and 43%) vs. the back and face for men (52% and 38%). Eight percent (8%) admitted that their sunburn messed their vacation up, 38% reported sleep disturbance and 26% couldn't do what they wanted because of their sunburn. Assessment of QoL using the DLQI showed evidence of quality of life impairment stronger for women than for men, mean scores being respectively 4.89 and 2.72 (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The results of our study are similar to the one of McCarthy et al where men exhibited a significantly higher frequency of sunburn, employed fewer sun-protective measures, and demonstrated less knowledge concerning sun safety information and skin cancer than women. The direct consequence of this is a profound impairment of quality of life for men (DLQI mean score of 4.89) compared to women. This score reflects quality of life impairment similar to patients suffering from acne or solar keratosis.