We sought to describe the prevalence of children¡¯s sun-related behaviors and associated parental and other factors.
In weekly cross-sectional telephone interviews during summer, 1140 parents/guardians of children aged 0 to 11 years were recruited. Parents provided proxy reports for one of their children. Key questions related to weekend sun protection and sunburn, parent¡¯s sun-related attitudes, and demographic characteristics. Potential predictors of children¡¯s sun protection and sunburn were analyzed adjusting for covariates including weather conditions on the previous weekend.
On summer weekends, 73 % of children spent longer than 15 minutes outdoors in peak ultraviolet radiation periods. Of these, 64 % were protected by a hat and 58 % by sun-protection factor 15 or higher sunscreen, 32 % stayed under shade, and 18 % wore three-quarter or long-sleeved tops. Overall, 8 % of children had sunburn. Parental attitudes were typically supportive of children¡¯s sun protection. Parental use of hats (odds ratio [OR] 3.1; 95 % confidence interval [CI] 1.6-6.2), shade (OR 9.6; 95 % CI 4.4-20.8), sunscreen (OR 12.6; 95 % CI 5.2-30.4), longer leg cover (OR 10.3; 95 % CI 4.4-24.0), and two or more protective behaviors (OR 5.7; 95 % CI 2.8-11.9) increased the odds of their children practicing these behaviors, as did some parental attitudes.
We relied on cross-sectional parent reports.
Although children¡¯s sun protection was favorable, there was room for improvement. Health promotion to improve sun-protection practices in adults may benefit children¡¯s sun-safe behaviors.