Evaluation of a three-year school-based intervention to increase adolescent sun protection.
Lowe, J. B., Balanda, K. P., Stanton, W. R., & Gillespie, A. (1999). Evaluation of a three-year school-based intervention to increase adolescent sun protection. Health Education & Behavior, 26(3), 396-408.
The efficacy of a school-based skin cancer prevention intervention was evaluated using a randomized controlled trial in Australia. In consecutive grades (8, 9, and 10), approximately 3,400 students in the intervention group received components of a program that addressed issues related to the need to protect yourself from the sun, behavioral strategies related to using sun protective measures, personal and social images of having a tan, the use of sun-safe clothing, and how to change their schools through forms of structural change. Pre- and post-intervention measures among junior high school students showed greatest improvement in the intervention group's knowledge scores and minimal changes in sun protection behavior from Grade 8 to Grade 9, which were not maintained through Grade 10.
