Parent reports of sun safety communication and behaviour for students in a randomised trial on a school policy implementation intervention

• Published in: Australian and New Zealand journal of public health Vol. 44; no. 3; pp. 208 - 214
• Main Authors: Buller, David B., Reynolds, Kim D., Buller, Mary K., Massie, Kim, Berteletti, Julia, Ashley, Jeff, Meenan, Richard
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Australia Elsevier B.V 01-06-2020; Elsevier Limited; Elsevier
• Subjects: Cancer; Child welfare; Children; Children & youth; Communication; Disease control; Disease prevention; Elementary schools; Evaluation; Health and hygiene; Health education; Hispanic Americans; Information dissemination; Internet; Intervention; Melanoma; Outdoor activities; Parent participation; Parents; Parents & parenting; policy; Policy implementation; Prevention; Principals; Protection; Protective clothing; Public health; Public schools; Randomization; Safety; school; School boards; School children; School districts; School principals; School safety; Schools; Skin; Skin cancer; Students; Sunburn & sun tanning; Sunscreen; Surgeons General; Technical assistance; New Zealand; California; Australia; United States > US; skin; cancer; school; prevention; policy
• ISSN: 1326-0200; 1753-6405; 1753-6405
• DOI: 10.1111/1753-6405.12987

Schools are an important setting for skin cancer prevention. An intervention for implementation of school sun safety policy, Sun Safety Schools (SSS), was evaluated.
Primary schools (n=118) in California school districts that had already adopted a sun safety policy were enrolled in a study with a randomised controlled design. Half of the schools were randomised to SSS intervention (N=58). Parents completed an online post‐test.
More parents in intervention schools received information about sun safety (mean=26.3%, sd=3.1%, p=0.017) and children more frequently wore sun‐protective clothing when not at school (mean=2.93, sd=0.03, p=0.033) than in control schools (mean=18.0%, sd=2.5%; mean=2.83, sd=0.03, respectively). In schools where principals reported implementing sun safety practices, parents reported that children spent less time outdoors at midday (mean=14.78 hours, sd=0.25, p=0.033) and fewer were sunburned (mean=12.7%, sd=1.1%, p=0.009) than in non‐implementing schools (M=16.3 hours, sd=0.67; mean=21.2%, sd=3.8%, respectively). Parents who received sun safety information (mean=3.08, sd=0.04, p=0.008) reported more child sun protection than parents not receiving information (mean=2.96, sd=0.02).
A school district sun protection policy and support for implementation increased dissemination of sun safety information to parents and student sun safety.
Technical assistance for sun safety policies may increase sun protection of children.