Skin cancer is epidemic and prevention must start in childhood to reduce lifetime ultraviolet radiation exposure and severe sunburns. Partners for Health Systems, Inc. (PHS) will produce an interactive multimedia CD-ROM version of the Sunny Days, Healthy Ways (SDHW) elementary school sun safety curriculum and evaluate its effectiveness at increasing knowledge, changing attitudes favorably; and increasing sun safe behavior. The target population for this Phase II project is students enrolled in grades K through 5 in eight public elementary schools in metro Denver and Greeley, Colorado. Multimedia are increasingly attractive to health educators, teachers, students, and parents. This Phase II project will build upon the grade K and 2 prototypes from Phase I (SBIR #1R43CA76755) to design and produce a complete SDHW multimedia program. The authoring of the CD-ROM multimedia programs will be performed under contract by the AMC Cancer Research Center's Health Communications Core. Agent-based, knowledge-construction interfaces will be programmed into the CD-ROMs to function as intelligent tutors for students. The ability of the CD-ROM SDHW to improve children's sun protection behavior (primary outcome) will be tested in a pair-matched randomized pretest/posttest control group design, employing 12 schools, 144 classes, and 2,160 students. Data analysis will be performed under contract by the AMC Cancer Research Center's Research Methodology and Biometrics Department.
| Buller, Mary K; Kane, Ilima L; Martin, Robert C et al. (2008) Randomized trial evaluating computer-based sun safety education for children in elementary school. J Cancer Educ 23:74-9 |
