) The California Sun Sense Project: A Skin Cancer Control Study is proposed to address the growing epidemic of skin cancer. Its long term goal is to reduce the incidence of all skin cancers, and consequently cause a reduction in morbidity and mortality related to these tumors. The importance of this goal is supported by the almost one million new cases of skin cancer that will be diagnosed in the coming year, and by the incidence rate of malignant melanoma which is increasing at a rate exceeding all other cancers.
The specific aim of the proposed pilot is to reduce children's exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays, the number one risk factor for the development of skin cancer. Targeting of children is important because more than 80 percent of all ultraviolet light exposure occurs before the age of 18 and preventive behaviors learned during the early years are less resistant to change. The pilot will seek to accomplish this by evaluating the effectiveness of an educational intervention aimed at child/parent pairs from the UCLA Pediatric Clinic and then randomize them to either intervention or usual care groups. Both groups will receive a pre-intervention questionnaire, but only the intervention sample will be exposed to a video on skin cancer sun/protective behavior, a brochure, a shirt/hat and a sunscreen sample. A follow-up phone questionnaire will be conducted to both groups early fall in order to measure the effectiveness of the intervention on increased subject adherence to healthy behavioral choices regarding sun exposure. Finally, the feasibility of expanding this pilot project with the aim of delivering sun cancer prevention to larger segments of the population will be evaluated.
| Glasser, Alice; Shaheen, Magda; Glenn, Beth A et al. (2010) The sun sense study: an intervention to improve sun protection in children. Am J Health Behav 34:500-10 |
