The purpose of this study is to determine whether a skin cancer prevention website is effective at reduce female teenagers' desire to use indoor tanning and ultimately their use of indoor tanning over an 18 month period.
The project is designed to improve the understanding of, and ability to affect UV risk behavior in teenage populations. The International Agency for Research in Cancer classifies indoor tanning as "carcinogenic to humans." There is evidence that female indoor tanning use increases dramatically from freshman to senior years of high school (e.g., 25-40% of older high school girls) making high school a critical time period for anti-tanning interventions to be carried out. This proposal assesses the effectiveness of a skin cancer prevention website for a nationally representative sample of high school teens in a randomized controlled trial. Teens exposed to the website will report reduced indoor tanning intentions, frequency and overall percentage of users while increasing sun protective behaviors at long-term (i.e 18 month) follow-up.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
DOUBLE
Enrollment
443
The intervention is a teen-friendly website with information concerning the health and appearance effects of indoor tanning.
The control website contains information about alcohol and drug abuse which is oriented for a teen audience.
East Tennessee State University
Johnson City, Tennessee, United States
Indoor Tanning Behavior
Self-report measure of the number of times the teenager has indoor tanned over 12 month time period. The self-report measure has been validated in previous studies.
Time frame: 12 months
Indoor Tanning Intentions
A validated measure of the teenagers intentions to use indoor tanning in the next 12 months. Indoor tanning intentions are measured on a scale that ranges from 1 (definitely do not intend to indoor tan; better) to 7 (definitely do intend to indoor tan; worse).
Time frame: 12 months
Indoor Tanning Willingness
Scale that measures adolescents willingness to indoor tan in the future. Indoor tanning willingness is measured on a scale that ranges from 1 (definitely not willing; better) to 7 (definitely willing; worse).
Time frame: 12 months
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