How valid is adolescents' self-report as a way of assessing sun protection practices?
BACKGROUND
The accurate assessment of sun protective behaviors can assist in the effective targeting of preventive strategies.


METHODS
This study explored the validity of self-report by adolescents in relation to parental/guardian reports using a scale to determine whether adolescents were accurately classified as adequately protected or not during the preceding weekend. The study sample was drawn from a school population and provided 53 matched adolescent and parental/guardian responses from 115 subjects (consent rate 46%). The validity of self-reports in relation to the level of protection afforded to a range of body parts (face, neck, shoulders, torso, etc.) was calculated. Calculations of sensitivity, which represented the proportion of cases in which the body part was classified as adequately protected by both the criterion reference and the self-report, and specificity, in which inadequate protection was confirmed by both the criterion reference and the self-report, were completed. In instances in which fewer than five observations fell into a cell, thereby limiting the accuracy of results, no measures were calculated.


RESULTS
Measures of sensitivity for the use of sun protection were legs (59%), neck (79%), feet (79%), face (92%), and shoulders, torso, and upper arms (98%). In contrast measures of specificity were face (61%), legs (80%), and neck (87%).


CONCLUSIONS
Although further studies of self-report methodologies with larger samples are required to verify these findings, the results suggest that adolescent self-report of solar protection is relatively valid and has the potential to be utilized with a degree of confidence to assess behavior.
Lower
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New South Wales Cancer Council Cancer Education Research Program, Newcastle, Australia.
Girgis
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A
Sanson-Fisher
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R
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D015588:Observer Variation; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013471:Sunburn / Q000517:prevention & control*; D013473:Sunscreening Agents
D013473:Sunscreening Agents