Online videos to promote sun safety: results of a contest.
Seventy-percent of Americans search health information online, half of whom access medical content on social media websites. In spite of this broad usage, the medical community underutilizes social media to distribute preventive health information. This project aimed to highlight the promise of social media for delivering skin cancer prevention messaging by hosting and quantifying the impact of an online video contest. In 2010 and 2011, we solicited video submissions and searched existing YouTube videos. Three finalists were selected and ranked. Winners were announced at national dermatology meetings and publicized via a contest website. Afterwards, YouTube view counts were monitored. No increase in video viewing frequency was observed following the 2010 or 2011 contest. This contest successfully identified exemplary online sun safety videos; however, increased viewership remains to be seen. Social media offers a promising outlet for preventive health messaging. Future efforts must explore strategies for enhancing viewership of online content.
University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO;
Annelise L
AL
Dawson
Department of Dermatology, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA;
Ashley A
AA
Hamstra
Department of Dermatology, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO;
Laura Sturgess
LS
Huff
University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO;
Ryan G
RG
Gamble
Hill Center for Dermatology, Golden, CO;
William
W
Howe
Klein Buendel, Inc., Golden, CO;
Ilima
I
Kane
University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO; ; Department of Dermatology, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO; ; Dermatology Service, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Denver, CO; ; Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO, USA.
Robert P
RP
Dellavalle
Internet; YouTube.; skin cancer prevention; social media; tanning