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 "Vanity is more of a driving force to use sunscreen,
as opposed to the fear factor of developing skin cancer," the
study's lead author, William Tuong, told Reuters Health. Tuong is a
fourth-year medical student at the University of California, Davis.
In his study, high school students applied sunblock three times as
often if they watched a video showing how it could prevent their
skin from wrinkling than if they watched a video showing how sun
exposure causes melanoma.
Fifty Sacramento 11th-grade students participated in the study and
saw one of two educational videos urging them to lather on
sunscreen.
Tuong developed the five-minute videos to test the theory that
teenagers were more likely to respond to messages about appearance
than to messages about health.
A young, attractive woman speaks directly to youth in both videos.
In one, the actress emphasizes the growing incidence of melanoma in
young people and the link between the deadliest form of skin cancer
and ultraviolet light. In the other video, the same actress
discusses how ultraviolet light contributes to premature aging and
"can make you look older and less attractive."
"We are not trying to look like our grandparents, right?" the
actress says. "Have you seen what the sun can do to a grape? It gets
shriveled and wrinkled. Raisins are not cute," she says.
"I don't want to look like a raisin face, and I don't think you want
to either," she continues. "The sun causes wrinkles, dark spots,
uneven skin tones, sagging skin and rough, leathery skin. These are
all the things that will make you look older and definitely less
sexy."
The video teaching the kids to use sunscreen to prevent skin cancer
sounds more clinical, like a biology lecture.
The researchers assessed how often students applied sunscreen before
watching the videos and six weeks after.
Students who saw the appearance-based video went from using
sunscreen an average of 0.6 times a week to 2.8 times a week. Those
who saw the video stressing health benefits, however, increased
their average usage by only a fraction of a day — from 0.7 to 0.9
times a week, according to findings published in the Journal of the
American Academy of Dermatology.
The researchers also tested students' knowledge about proper
sunscreen use and the effects of exposing their skin to the sun
before and after they showed the video. After watching the videos,
students in both groups improved their knowledge about the benefits
of using sunscreen.
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The study provides evidence that appearance-based messages may be
better than traditional health-based messages in promoting
sun-protection measures, the authors say.
Prior research has shown that efforts to educate kids about sun
exposure and skin-cancer risk have improved knowledge but failed to
improve sunscreen usage.
"Past research shows that adolescents have difficulty practicing
preventive health behavior because they believe themselves less
likely to experience disease," the authors of the current study
write.
One prior study did find that college students significantly
increased their sunscreen use after seeing ultraviolet-filtered
photographs of their faces.
Tuong said videos are substantially less expensive to produce and
easier to distribute than ultraviolet-filtered photographs.
"Video definitely could be used in a clinic setting, in the waiting
room or in an office while a student is waiting," he said.
"With younger individuals, messages that resonate with them are
messages that speak to them now," Tuong said. "Appearance-based
messaging resonates with them because it's more about short-term
risk versus long-term risk."
The health-based video can be seen here:
http://bit.ly/1oc0hMp and
the appearance-based video here: http://bit.ly/1dCLiCh.
___
Source: http://bit.ly/1eUJpWl
Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, online Feb. 5,
2014.
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