The Falmouth Safe Skin Project: evaluation of a community program to promote sun protection in youth.
A multidimensional community-based skin cancer prevention program was conducted in Falmouth, Massachusetts, combining community activism with publicity campaigns and behavioral interventions to improve sun protection knowledge; attitudes; and practices in parents, caregivers, and children. The program was associated with improvements in target outcomes, based on two telephone surveys of random samples of parents (n = 401, 404). After program implementation, fewer parents reported sunburning of their children, particularly among children 6 years old or younger (18.6% in 1994 vs. 3.2% in 1997), and more parents reported children using sunscreen, particularly continuous use at the beach (from 47.4% to 69.9% in younger children). Hat and shirt use did not increase. Improvements also were seen in parent role modeling of sun protection practices, parents' self-efficacy in protecting children from the sun, and sun protection knowledge. While these findings must be interpreted cautiously, they do suggest that this project was effective in promoting sun protection.
Miller
D R
DR
Department of Dermatology, Boston University School of Medicine, Massachusetts, USA.
Geller
A C
AC
Wood
M C
MC
Lew
R A
RA
Koh
H K
HK
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003256:Community Participation; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008404:Massachusetts; D008545:Melanoma / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016487:Parenting; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011481:Protective Clothing; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*; D013471:Sunburn / Q000517:prevention & control*; D013473:Sunscreening Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use
D013473:Sunscreening Agents