Sun Safe Together: A Digital Skin Cancer Prevention Intervention for Adolescents and Their Parents

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey104 enrolled

Overview

The goal of this pilot clinical trial is to learn if a digital intervention to improve sun safety, Sun Safe Together (SST), is feasible and acceptable to teenagers and their parents.

Melanoma is a leading cause of invasive cancer in teens and young adults aged 15-39. Most skin cancers are preventable with skin protection such as minimizing UVR exposure and wearing protective clothing and sunscreen. However, teens have low levels of sun protection. Thus, interventions targeting skin cancer risk reduction among teens are needed. The proposed Sun Safe Together (SST) intervention is a 12-week program consisting of sun safety and general health messages sent via multimedia messaging service (MMS) to teens and via a private Facebook group for parents. This pilot trial is a single arm test of SST to determine: 1. feasibility of enrolling parent-teen dyads 2. engagement with/acceptability of the intervention via message views and acceptability ratings 3. outcome data collection feasibility (i.e., daily diary, UVR exposure measured by UVR dosimeter) 4. retention rates for teens and parents at 3 and 6 months

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

104

Conditions

Skin Cancer Prevention

Interventions

Teen MMSBEHAVIORAL

Teens will receive MMS messages regarding sun safety behaviors and other general health issues for 12 weeks.

Parent FacebookBEHAVIORAL

Parents of teenagers join a private Facebook group where membership, activities, and content are only viewable by invited members. Content related to teen sun safety and general health will be posted for 12 weeks. Research staff will moderate the group.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 13 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: Parents and teens are participating as dyads, meaning both the parent and the teen need to be deemed eligible based on the criteria below to be able to participate. Teens * Must be ages 13-17 years * Live with study parent equal to or greater than half time in US * Have experienced sunburn or indoor tanned in the last year or have a suboptimal sun protection score * Have no personal history of melanoma or severe medical condition that prevents participation * Have access to smartphone * Speak and read English Parents/Guardians * Must be age 18 or older * Live with a teen equal to or greater than half time in US * Have a teen who had experienced sunburn or indoor tanned in the last year or have a suboptimal sun protection score * Have no personal history of melanoma or severe medical condition that prevents participation * Have internet at home, a Facebook account, and be willing to use Facebook daily * Have access to smartphone * Speak and read English

Locations (1)

Rutgers Cancer Institute

New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States

RECRUITING

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Feasibility of recruitment

Feasibility of recruitment will be assessed by the proportion of eligible parent-teen dyads that enroll in the study

Time frame: Baseline

Acceptability of MMS intervention

Items were adapted from the Acceptability of Intervention and Feasibility of Intervention Measures to obtain participant feedback about the acceptability, feasibility, ease of use, and impact of the intervention. Individual items are rated on a 5-point likert scale from (1) Completely Disagree to (5) Completely Agree. Higher scores indicated greater acceptability.

Time frame: Immediately after the intervention

Engagement with MMS intervention

Proportion of messages viewed will be calculated to describe engagement.

Time frame: 3-months

Feasibility of Outcome Data Collection - 7-Day Diaries

Proportion of teens who complete 7-day diaries will be calculated.

Time frame: Baseline, 3-months, 6-months

Feasibility of Outcome Data Collection - UVR Dosimeter

Proportion of teens who return UVR dosimeter with usable data will be calculated.

Time frame: Baseline, 6 months

Retention

Proportion of enrolled teens who complete surveys at 3- and 6-months will be calculated.

Time frame: 3-months, 6-months

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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