Promoting sun safety for children in outdoor recreation in a trial on disseminating an evidence-based sun safety program

Protecting children from ultraviolet radiation (UV) should reduce risk of skin cancer. One challenge is promoting sun safety in recreation environments where children benefit from physical activity. In a randomized-controlled trial, strategies for disseminating Go Sun Smart (GSS), an evidence-based sun safety program, were evaluated at 68 ski areas in North America. Strategies included a “Basic” industry strategy of promotion through normal channels and distribution of free materials and an “Enhanced” strategy that added face-to-face communication with senior managers based on Diffusion of Innovations Theory. A post-survey with 909 parents measured the sun safety of children at ski/snowboard schools. Children were 49% female and 82% under age 11; 11% had been sunburned at a ski area during the winter. No differences emerged based on dissemination strategy (p>.05). However, parents recalled more sun safety messages when 5+ GSS materials were observed in use in guest-accessible areas. More parents reported that someone at the ski/snowboard school had told them to provide sunscreen, sunglasses/goggles, and a hat for their child when 5+ GSS items were in guest-accessible areas (26%) than <5 items (16%, p=.02). Program use and message recall interacted such that when use was high (5+ items), recall of sun protection messages had broad positive effects on child sun protection (sunscreen, sunscreen lip balm, sunglasses, and overall sun protection, p<.05), but not when it was low (<5 items). Sun safety for children may be effectively promoted in outdoor recreation, but program use needs to be sufficient to expose parents to safety messages.