Improving Sun-Protective Behaviors and Skin Self-Examinations Among African Americans

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To assess whether an educational brochure and online program will increase sun-protective behaviors among African-American patients who present at the general dermatology clinic.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To assess whether the educational brochure and online program will improve skills for skin self-examinations among African-American patients who present at the general dermatology clinic.

OUTLINE: Participants are assigned to 1 of 2 arms.

ARM I: Participants receive a skin cancer educational and preventive brochure distributed by the National Cancer Institute and watch a 30-minute online tutorial video called X-Plain about skin cancer, preventative behaviors, and skin self-examinations.

ARM II: Participants receive an educational brochure as in Arm I.

After completion of study, participants are followed up at 30 days.

• Written Educational Brochure (Other), also known as Education for Intervention, Intervention, Educational: Receive brochure with skin cancer education and preventative information
• Online educational video (Other), also known as video intervention, X-Plain: Watch 30-minute online tutorial video about skin cancer, preventive behaviors, and skin self-examinations

Primary outcomes

• Change in sunscreen use among African-American patients [Baseline to day 30]: Change in sun-protective behaviors among African-American patients. Measured by sunscreen use. All responses for questions about sun-protective behaviors are on a 5-point Likert scale. Summary scores will be created at baseline and short-term (1 month) follow-up for both control and treatment groups. The outcome variable is a continuous variable. Treatment scores individuals on the intervention group will be compared. T-tests will be used to compare mean scores for sun-protective behaviors between control and treatment groups.
• Change in apparel use when exposed to sun among African-American patients [Baseline to day 30]: Change in sun-protective behaviors among African-American patients. Measured by apparel use when exposed to sun. All responses for questions about sun-protective behaviors are on a 5-point Likert scale. Summary scores will be created at baseline and short-term (1 month) follow-up for both control and treatment groups. The outcome variable is a continuous variable. Treatment scores individuals on the intervention group will be compared. T-tests will be used to compare mean scores for sun-protective behaviors between control and treatment groups.
• Change in frequency of tanning among African-American patients [Baseline to day 30]: Change in sun-protective behaviors among African-American patients. Measured by frequency of tanning. All responses for questions about sun-protective behaviors are on a 5-point Likert scale. Summary scores will be created at baseline and short-term (1 month) follow-up for both control and treatment groups. The outcome variable is a continuous variable. Treatment scores individuals on the intervention group will be compared. T-tests will be used to compare mean scores for sun-protective behaviors between control and treatment groups.

Secondary outcomes

• Change in skin self-examinations among African-American patients as measured by knowledge, behavior and anxiety [Baseline to day 30]: Analyzed by looking at increase or decrease in skin self-examinations the patients report from pre-intervention to post-intervention. Performance of skin self-examination is measured by knowledge, behavior, and anxiety. Most responses for questions about skin self-examinations are on a 5-point Likert scale, while some are yes/no or true/false. Summary scores will be created at baseline and short-term (1 month) follow-up for both control and treatment groups. The outcome variable is a continuous variable. T-tests will be used to compare mean scores for skin self-examinations between groups.

Sex: All, ages: 18 Years to any, accepts healthy volunteers

Inclusion Criteria:

* Self-identified African-Americans who are literate and fluent in English

Exclusion Criteria:

* Non-African-Americans
* English illiteracy
* non-fluency in English

• Jeremy Bordeaux, Principal investigator, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center

NIH grants: P30CA043703