Vera IDS, González SPC, Domínguez CJ

Language: Spanish
References: 16
Page: 94-103
PDF size: 443.37 Kb.

ABSTRACT

Background: Perception that a beautiful tan is healthy and attractive, to educate adolescents about sun protection is quite difficult. Research on skin cancer prevention has increased in recent years, also better advances in technological methods are used to estimate UV exposure and UV damage. Our goal was to determine the educational impact and knowledge, attitudes and practices concerning sun protection among the children of secondary schools and colleges.
Materials and methods: A cohort, prospective and intervention study was conducted, at three secondary schools in Mexico City. The 446 students were evaluated by a self- administered and structured test, with questions on knowledge, attitudes and practices about sun protection before, and 3 months after an educational project comparing performance pretest and posttest.
Results: Four hundred and forty six students were included in this study; 54% female and 46% males. 892 questionnaires were analyzed. Exposure time was 20.2 hours per week. Among the 446 students who participated in the study, 47.8 % had olive skin (light-brown). Some students, improved significantly from their pretest to posttest scores (p‹ 0.05) in the schools (S) 1, 2 and 3. Students who had knowledge about sun exposure (75.6%-84.9%; p=.000) S1; (75%-98.4%; p=.001) S3 and were aware that sun exposure has been associated with adverse health consequences including: that sun exposure caused skin cancer (91.4%-94.3%; p=.011) S2; that mortality is increased (86.2%-87.2%; p=.002) S1; but it is curable (41.0%-45.5%; p=.039) S1; than excessive sun exposure is related to aging of the skin (40.1%-60.6%; p=.001) S1; that immune response is altered (57.7%-74%; p=.007) S1. Besides a great majority of the students recognized that sun exposure produces adverse health consequences, some students believed tanning is unhealthy (61.2% S1; 68.6% S2; 60.9% S3). Limitations: This study only used one health educator and was restricted to only three private and public schools in Mexico City.
Conclusions: Dermatologist can provide leadership in designing, implementing, and evaluating promising strategies to increase skin cancer prevention. This study demonstrates that modest education among students of different grades, sexes and ages can increase knowledge of skin care, including knowledge and practices of sun protection, and diminishing skin cancer.

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