Encouraging sun safety for children and adolescents

Nurses lead the way for "safe in the sun" play!

Skin cancer prevention is of great importance as it is the most common type of cancer in the United States. Much skin damage occurs early in life. Adolescents are a vulnerable population, as they strive to fit in with their peers, and they neglect sun safety habits. Since a substantial portion of adolescents' time is spent at school, school nurses are in an ideal position to develop and lead a sun safety action plan, using guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and evidence-based sun safety internet resources. It is hoped that incorporating a culture of skin health promotion and disease prevention among teens will lead to improved health outcomes in the future.

Skin cancer-related prevention and screening behaviors: a review of the literature

Primary prevention and early detection continue to be of paramount importance in addressing the public health threat of skin cancer. The aim of this systematic review was to provide a comprehensive overview of the prevalence and correlates of skin cancer-related health behaviors in the general population. To achieve this aim, 91 studies published in international peer-reviewed journals over the past three decades were reviewed and synthesized. Reported estimates of sunscreen use varied considerably across studies, ranging from 7 to 90%. According to self-report, between 23 and 61% of individuals engage in skin self-examination at least once per year, and the documented prevalence of annual clinical skin examination ranges from 8 to 21%. Adherence to sun protection and screening recommendations is associated with a range of factors, including: female gender, sun-sensitive phenotype, greater perceived risk of skin cancer, greater perceived benefits of sun protection or screening, and doctor recommendation for screening. The literature suggests that a large proportion of the general population engage in suboptimal levels of sun protection, although there is substantial variability in findings. The strongest recommendation to emerge from this review is a call for the development and widespread use of standardized measurement scales in future research, in addition to more studies with a population-based, multivariate design. It is also recommended that specific targeted interventions are developed to increase the prevalence of preventative and early intervention behaviors for the control of skin cancer.