Original articleKnowledge, attitudes, and behaviors toward skin cancer in Maryland youths
Section snippets
Methods
This study evaluates baseline data collected as part of the “SunGuard Your Skin” project of the Coalition for Skin Cancer Prevention in Maryland, a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) sponsored skin cancer prevention project. Children enrolled in 7th grade in public schools in 6 Maryland counties were surveyed in the Spring semester of 1999. CDC judged the survey to be exempt from Institutional Review Board review owing to the anonymous voluntary nature of the data collection. Of the 3256 youths
Results
The study population was an average of 12.1 years old. We were unable to collect data on race/ethnicity, but based on county-level data 67% of the study population would be expected to be Caucasian. In both boys and girls, the average number of correct responses to the multiple choice knowledge items was less than 50% and to the true/false knowledge items was less than 70% (Table 1). The majority reported using sunscreen always/sometimes when out in the sun (Table 1). Not counting “don’t
Discussion
The results of this cross-sectional survey emphasize the need for skin cancer prevention programs targeted toward youths, as the knowledge and behaviors of the 7th-graders concerning skin cancer and skin protection were suboptimal. A major finding was the overall low level of knowledge in Maryland youths, emphasizing the need to incorporate basic knowledge of skin cancer and sun protective behaviors in preventive interventions designed for this population. Not surprisingly under these
Acknowledgements
This study was conducted with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Alberg is a recipient of a Preventive Oncology Academic Award (CA73790) from the National Cancer Institute. We thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions on an earlier version of this manuscript.
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