Sun-Protection Habits of Primary Students in a Coastal Area of Greece

Abstract

Aim. The aim of the present study was to record habits and attitudes of primary school students in Greece regarding sun-protection measures. Materials and Methods. 2,163 students with an average age of 9.9 (±1.1) years, studying in 14 schools of a Greek region, constituted our sample. The SPSS 17.0 software was used for the statistical analysis and significance level was set to P ≤ 0.05. Results. Our sample had an equal gender distribution. 16% of the students belonged to the high-risk group, 70.2% of the participants lived 0–5 km away from the sea (urban area), 84.2% of the students were Greek, and 15.8% had non-Greek nationality. Half of the participants said they wear a hat when under the sun and 72% of them said they use sunscreen. 33.1% of the students said they had a sunburn last summer. Greek students as well as those who lived near the sea had better behaviour patterns regarding sun protection. Finally, children who did not use a sunscreen systematically had suffered sunburns more often than the rest. Conclusions. Health education programmes are necessary for students and parents/teachers alike, in order to raise awareness about everyday sun protection.

An Educational Intervention in Primary School Students Regarding Sun Protection: A Pilot Study

“…Our findings are in agreement with those of other studies that have reported high knowledge scores regarding sun protection measures [15][16][17][18][19][20]. Also, although before the intervention the students' knowledge about sun protection factors was low (25%), after the intervention it increased to 55%, since the programme was specifically aiming at enhancing knowledge about SPF.…”

“…Nevertheless, this was an encouraging sign for the present study. This finding could be attributed to the fact that new and healthier behavioral patterns cannot be adopted by children just on account of more knowledge, since family, peer and school influence play an important role in adopting wiser behaviors, as other studies have also shown [15,18,25].…”

Sun Burn Incidence and Knowledge of Greek Elementary and High School Children about Sun Protection

“…Several other studies have also found higher percentages of adolescents using sunscreen and having a sunburn too (Linabery and Ross, 2008;Al-Naggar et al, 2011;Duignan et al, 2014). Their behavior as far as the acquirement of a tan is following the trends of young people for the acceptable beauty standards, as promoted by the Media, their peers and society, and this has been observed in other countries too (Savona et al, 2005;Saridi et al, 2012;Gefeller et al, 2014;Kyle et al, 2014).…”

“…The data included in this study were about the comparison of data of two similar studies that had taken place in the same area, in different time periods, and those data were discussed according to the knowledge and attitudes of pupils (9-18 years old) on sun protection (Saridi et al, 2012;Saridi et al, 2014a;2014c). The compared data focused on incidence of sun burn in all age groups, and recorded all these factors which intensify or prevent this incidence.…”

Skin Cancer Risk Perception and Sunscreen Use in Adolescent Female Soccer Athletes

“…A study of male and female adolescent athletes' self-reported reasons for not protecting themselves from the sun indicated lack of perceived long-term risk, beliefs that skin cancer was easily treated, and desire for a fashionable tan (Paul, Tzelepis, Parfitt, & Girgis, 2008). Another recent study by Saridi, Bourdaki, and Rekleiti (2014) sought to explore young adolescent high school students' perceptions regarding sun-related skin cancer risk, sun protection measures including sunscreen use, and resulting sunburn incidence. No significant correlation was found between perceptions of skin cancer risk or sun protective measures and sunburn incidence.…”