Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jan 30, 2020
Date Accepted: Apr 27, 2020
Date Submitted to PubMed: Jul 16, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Sun Safe Partners Online: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
Harnessing supportive influences in close relationships is an innovative and potentially effective strategy to improve sun protection behaviors. This pilot randomized controlled clinical trial evaluated the feasibility and preliminary impact of Sun Safe Partners Online, an online, couple-focused intervention to improve sun protection behavior. Seventy five couples reporting suboptimal levels of sun protection recruited from Facebook advertisements were randomized to receive a web-based intervention called Sun Safe Partners Online or a Generic Online Sun Safety Information intervention. Sun Safe Partners Online had four individual-focused modules and four couple-focused modules. Feasibility was assessed by study enrollment, engagement, follow-up survey completion, and intervention evaluation. Participants completed baseline and a one month post-intervention surveys assessing sun protection and sun exposure, along with individual and relationship attitudes about the importance of sun protection. Using Facebook as a recruitment strategy resulted in rapid enrollment and higher acceptance than for the prior telephone and print trial. The follow-up survey completion was higher in the Generic Online condition (100%) than the Sun Safe Partners Online condition (87.2%). Engagement in Sun Safe Partners Online was high with more than two-thirds of participants completing all modules. Evaluations of Sun Safe Partners Online content and features as well as ease of navigation were excellent. Sun Safe Partners Online showed small effects on sun protection behaviors and sun exposure on weekends compared with the Generic Online intervention and moderate effect size increases in the Sun Safe Partners Online condition. This study utilized a novel approach to facilitating engagement in sun protection by harnessing relationship influences among spouses and co-habiting partners. A couple-focused intervention may hold promise as a way to improve sun protection behaviors beyond interventions focused solely on individuals by leveraging the concern, collaboration, and support among intimate partners and addressing relationship-based barriers to sun protection.
Objective:
Harnessing supportive influences in close relationships is an innovative and potentially effective strategy to improve sun protection behaviors
Methods:
Seventy five couples reporting suboptimal levels of sun protection recruited from Facebook advertisements were randomized to receive a web-based intervention called Sun Safe Partners Online or a Generic Online Sun Safety Information intervention. Sun Safe Partners Online had four individual-focused modules and four couple-focused modules. Feasibility was assessed by study enrollment, engagement, follow-up survey completion, and intervention evaluation. Participants completed baseline and a one month post-intervention surveys assessing sun protection and sun exposure, along with individual and relationship attitudes about the importance of sun protection. Using Facebook as a recruitment strategy resulted in rapid enrollment and higher acceptance than for the prior telephone and print trial. The follow-up survey completion was higher in the Generic Online condition (100%) than the Sun Safe Partners Online condition (87.2%).
Results:
Sun Safe Partners Online also showed small to moderate-size effects on relationship benefits and support provided to the partner. The small to moderate effect sizes for individual factors suggested that participants in Sun Safe Partners Online increased sun protection intentions and sun protection benefits.
Conclusions:
A couple-focused intervention may hold promise as a way to improve sun protection behaviors beyond interventions focused solely on individuals by leveraging the concern, collaboration, and support among intimate partners and addressing relationship-based barriers to sun protection. Clinical Trial: none
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© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.