Preventing Skin Cancer: Preventing Skin Cancer: Interventions Targeting Children’s Parents and Caregivers

Task Force Finding*

These activities focus primarily on supporting parents and caregivers in changing the sun-protective behavior of the children in their care. Caregivers for children may include nannies, other family members, lifeguards, and teachers and coaches. Such individuals play an important role in protecting children from UV radiation, including reducing children’s UV exposure, incorporating sun-protective behaviors into routines, and modeling healthy behavior. They may be amenable to the provision of information; to activities to change knowledge, attitudes, and intentions; and to environmental or policy approaches, such as scheduling outdoor activities to avoid peak UV hours.

The reviewed reports provided insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of interventions for parents or caregivers because there were too few reports and findings were inconsistent. Although not recommendation outcomes, the reports demonstrate that the intervention did lead to improvements in children’s attitudes or beliefs, as well as sun-safety measures and environmental supports at outdoor recreational centers and swimming pools.

*From the following publication:

Task Force on Community Preventive Services. Recommendations to prevent skin cancer by reducing exposure to ultraviolet radiation. [PDF - 70KB] Am J Prev Med 2004;27(5):467-70.

Review completed: July 2002