Teaching children about skin cancer prevention: why wait for adolescence?

The baseline knowledge about skin cancer prevention of 983 children aged 8 to 12 years was assessed by a pretest questionnaire. After the pretest, half were given a formal presentation about skin cancer prevention. The other half participated in an informal, question-and-answer session, which covered all material from the formal presentation. Two weeks later, all students completed an identical post-test. The students had a high baseline level of knowledge about skin cancer prevention. Knowledge increased for most items in the post-test questionnaire. In all age groups there was no difference in results between the formal and interactive teaching sessions, except among eight-year-olds, for whom the formal presentation was more effective. As much solar skin damage occurs before adolescence, the younger age group is the important target for skin cancer prevention programs.