Melanoma prevention: evaluation of a health education campaign for primary schools

To evaluate the effectiveness of an educational campaign aimed toward limiting children's sun exposure.

Prospective, multicenter trial with before-after comparison. A school-based campaign was presented as a game during a 4-week period (May 25 to June 1992) with primary school teachers as game hosts. Children were interviewed with a standardized questionnaire in September before (1991) and after (1992) the campaign. Comparisons between the children's answers before and after the campaign were made using paired chi2 tests and analysis of variance.

Five French primary schools.

All children in their fourth year of primary school (228 children aged 9 years).

Changes after the campaign in children's answers concerning their knowledge, attitude, and behavior toward the sun during summer holidays.

Compared with the precampaign answers, more children after the campaign claimed to protect themselves from the sun with a hat (33.7% vs 23.8%; P = .01) or sunscreen (34.8% vs 25.4%; P = .03), avoided going outside during the sunniest hours (76.8% vs 66.0%; P = .02), reapplied sunscreens (22.1% vs 10.6%; P<.001), considered that a T-shirt and shade provided better protection than sunscreen (82.7% vs 74.8%; P = .05), considered sunlight as a risk factor for skin cancer (74.9% vs 50.7%; P<.001), and spent significantly less time in the sun with their arms (P = .005), trunk, legs, and head uncovered (P<.001). Children with a fair complexion, who were the target of this campaign, showed the best improvement in their responses.

Health education campaigns can be effective in terms of improving the knowledge, attitude, and behavior of young children.