Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Nov 19, 2020
Date Accepted: Apr 5, 2021
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.
Real Time UV Measurement with a Sun Protection System Warning Young Adults of Sunburn: Prospective Cohort Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Melanoma is attributable to predisposing phenotypical factors, such as having skin that easily sunburns, as well as unprotected exposure to carcinogenic ultraviolet radiation. Despite 20 years of traditional public health media campaigns, young adults with sun sensitive skin consistently reported frequent sunburns. Reducing the proportion of young adults who sunburn may reduce the incidence of melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer. Advances in technology enabled delivery of real time and content relevant health interventions.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to examine the feasibility of young adults performing the following tasks daily: wearing the ultraviolet light (UV) dosimeter, receiving text messages and real time UVB doses on their smartphone, and responding to daily online surveys about sunburn and sun protection.
Methods:
Young adults aged 18-39 years (n=42) were recruited in the United States in June 2020 via social media. Participants received the UV Guard sun protection system consisting of a UV dosimeter by mail and downloaded the app for their smartphone. During three consecutive periods, the intervention intensity increased as follows: a) real-time UVB dose, b) UVB dose and daily behavioral facilitation text messages, and c) UVB dose, goal setting, and daily text messages to support self-efficacy and self-regulation. Data were self-reported through daily online surveys for 28 days and the UVB dose was transmitted to cloud-based storage.
Results:
Complete data were available for all participants. The mean age was 22 years, and all had sun sensitive skin. Sunburns were experienced in all three time periods. In July and August, the face was the most commonly sunburned area among 13 body locations with 46 facial sunburns among 84 body locations sunburned (54.8%). The daily UVB dose decreased during the three periods; however, the change was not statistically significant. Young adults were most often outdoors exercising from 2-6 PM, walking from 10 AM-6 PM, and relaxing from Noon to 2 PM. Sunburn was most often experienced during exercise (OR, 5.65 [95% CI, 1.60-6.10]), and relaxation (OR 3.69 [95% CI, 1.03-4.67]). The self-reported exit survey indicated participants felt that they spent less time outdoors this summer in comparison to last summer due to COVID-19 and work. Additionally, 16 (38%) participants changed their use of sun protection based on their UV exposure reported by the app and 20 (48%) shifted the time they went outside to periods with less intense UV exposure. Thirty-three participants (79%) were willing to continue their use of the UV Guard system outside of a research setting.
Conclusions:
In this proof-of-concept research, young adults demonstrated that they used the UV Guard system; however, optimization was needed. While some sun protection behaviors changed, it was not enough to prevent sunburn, especially during outdoor exercise. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT0334796
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© 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.