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Developing an Online Tool to Promote Safe Sun Behaviors With Young Teenagers as Co-researchers

Despite education about the risks of excessive sun exposure, teenagers in Australia are sun-seeking, with sunburn common in summer. Conversely, some regular (time-limited) exposure to sunlight (that avoids sunburn) is necessary for vitamin D and healthy bones and other molecules important for immune...

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Autores principales: Nguyen, Rebecca, Clare, Isabelle M., Gamage, Nisali, Alvares, Gail A., Black, Lucinda J., Hart, Prue H., Lucas, Robyn M., Strickland, Mark, Jaimangal, Mohinder, White, James, Gorman, Shelley
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8521794/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34713099
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2021.626606
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author Nguyen, Rebecca
Clare, Isabelle M.
Gamage, Nisali
Alvares, Gail A.
Black, Lucinda J.
Hart, Prue H.
Lucas, Robyn M.
Strickland, Mark
Jaimangal, Mohinder
White, James
Gorman, Shelley
author_facet Nguyen, Rebecca
Clare, Isabelle M.
Gamage, Nisali
Alvares, Gail A.
Black, Lucinda J.
Hart, Prue H.
Lucas, Robyn M.
Strickland, Mark
Jaimangal, Mohinder
White, James
Gorman, Shelley
author_sort Nguyen, Rebecca
collection PubMed
description Despite education about the risks of excessive sun exposure, teenagers in Australia are sun-seeking, with sunburn common in summer. Conversely, some regular (time-limited) exposure to sunlight (that avoids sunburn) is necessary for vitamin D and healthy bones and other molecules important for immune and metabolic health. New interventions are thus required to better support teenagers to make healthy and balanced decisions about their sun behaviors. This paper describes the development of a prototype online tool—a smartphone app—that aimed to foster safe sun practices in teenagers. We recruited young adolescents (aged 12–13 years, n = 24) as “co-researchers” to provide ongoing input into the nature and design of the online tool. This age group was selected, as it is a critical time when young people transition from primary education, where “SunSmart” behaviors are entrenched in Australian schools, to high school, where risky behaviors emerge. Through a series of interviews and workshops, we codesigned an Apple iOS smartphone app with the co-researchers, leading health promotion professionals, researchers, and app designers. The developed app, Sun Safe, contains educational content relevant to teenagers about safe sun behaviors, complemented by other features requested by co-researchers and stakeholders to help engage young people, including gamified quizzes to test their sun health knowledge, real-time weather data on the UV Index and temperature, a sunscreen application timer, and reminders to check the UV Index. The developed prototype app was rated well by co-researchers, suggesting it is suitable for further feasibility and efficacy testing as an intervention tool to improve knowledge and promote safe sun behaviors by young adolescents.
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spelling pubmed-85217942021-10-27 Developing an Online Tool to Promote Safe Sun Behaviors With Young Teenagers as Co-researchers Nguyen, Rebecca Clare, Isabelle M. Gamage, Nisali Alvares, Gail A. Black, Lucinda J. Hart, Prue H. Lucas, Robyn M. Strickland, Mark Jaimangal, Mohinder White, James Gorman, Shelley Front Digit Health Digital Health Despite education about the risks of excessive sun exposure, teenagers in Australia are sun-seeking, with sunburn common in summer. Conversely, some regular (time-limited) exposure to sunlight (that avoids sunburn) is necessary for vitamin D and healthy bones and other molecules important for immune and metabolic health. New interventions are thus required to better support teenagers to make healthy and balanced decisions about their sun behaviors. This paper describes the development of a prototype online tool—a smartphone app—that aimed to foster safe sun practices in teenagers. We recruited young adolescents (aged 12–13 years, n = 24) as “co-researchers” to provide ongoing input into the nature and design of the online tool. This age group was selected, as it is a critical time when young people transition from primary education, where “SunSmart” behaviors are entrenched in Australian schools, to high school, where risky behaviors emerge. Through a series of interviews and workshops, we codesigned an Apple iOS smartphone app with the co-researchers, leading health promotion professionals, researchers, and app designers. The developed app, Sun Safe, contains educational content relevant to teenagers about safe sun behaviors, complemented by other features requested by co-researchers and stakeholders to help engage young people, including gamified quizzes to test their sun health knowledge, real-time weather data on the UV Index and temperature, a sunscreen application timer, and reminders to check the UV Index. The developed prototype app was rated well by co-researchers, suggesting it is suitable for further feasibility and efficacy testing as an intervention tool to improve knowledge and promote safe sun behaviors by young adolescents. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-03-23 /pmc/articles/PMC8521794/ /pubmed/34713099 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2021.626606 Text en Copyright © 2021 Nguyen, Clare, Gamage, Alvares, Black, Hart, Lucas, Strickland, Jaimangal, White and Gorman. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Digital Health
Nguyen, Rebecca
Clare, Isabelle M.
Gamage, Nisali
Alvares, Gail A.
Black, Lucinda J.
Hart, Prue H.
Lucas, Robyn M.
Strickland, Mark
Jaimangal, Mohinder
White, James
Gorman, Shelley
Developing an Online Tool to Promote Safe Sun Behaviors With Young Teenagers as Co-researchers
title Developing an Online Tool to Promote Safe Sun Behaviors With Young Teenagers as Co-researchers
title_full Developing an Online Tool to Promote Safe Sun Behaviors With Young Teenagers as Co-researchers
title_fullStr Developing an Online Tool to Promote Safe Sun Behaviors With Young Teenagers as Co-researchers
title_full_unstemmed Developing an Online Tool to Promote Safe Sun Behaviors With Young Teenagers as Co-researchers
title_short Developing an Online Tool to Promote Safe Sun Behaviors With Young Teenagers as Co-researchers
title_sort developing an online tool to promote safe sun behaviors with young teenagers as co-researchers
topic Digital Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8521794/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34713099
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2021.626606
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