A Randomized Control Trial of Sun Protection Interventions for Operating Engineers

May 19, 2014 updated by: Sonia Duffy, University of Michigan
This is a randomized controlled trial testing the efficacy of 4 sun protection interventions--education only; education and mailed sunscreen; education and text message reminders; and education, mailed sunscreen, and text message reminders--among Michigan Operating Engineers. Pre- and post-intervention surveys will be collected to determine changes in sunscreen use and sun burning, the primary outcome variables. The investigators hypothesize that all interventions will increase sunscreen use and reduce burning and that the education-only intervention will have the least effect of the 4 interventions while the education, mailed sunscreen, and text messaging arm will have the greatest effect.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The education intervention will be provided during regularly scheduled safety training sessions, and the text messages and mailed sun screen (SPF30)interventions will be offered during the summer when UV rays are at their highest. Inclusion criteria are Operating Engineers who:1)are greater than 18 years of age; 2) are interested in enrolling in the sun protection study; 3) own a cell-phone that accepts text messages; and 4) are willing to share their phone number with the study team. Based on power analysis, 256 subjects are needed to have 80% power to detect medium sized effects on primary outcomes. Accounting for a 20% attrition rate, 320 subjects will be recruited. The analyses will include: a) paired t-tests to determine changes over time (from pre-intervention to post-intervention) in outcome variables (sunscreen use and burning) separately in the 4 intervention groups, b) Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance (RM-ANOVA) to compare the changes in outcomes across the 4 groups, and c) t-tests on change scores as follow-ups to the RM-ANOVA to determine exactly which groups differ from each other. Sub-analyses will explore if particular subgroups of Operating Engineers (e.g., demographic, heath behavior, and job type subgroups) differ in sunscreen use and sun burning pre-and post-intervention.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

357

Phase

  • Phase 2
  • Phase 3

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Michigan
      • Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States, 48109
        • University of Michigan School of Nursing

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • greater than 18 years of age
  • interested in enrolling in the sun protection study
  • owning a cell-phone that accepts text messages
  • willing to share their phone number with the study team

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Triple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Sunscreen
To reduce barriers to obtaining sunscreen and serve as cues to action, this group will be mailed during the months of May through September, a supply of SPF30 sunscreen lotion (known to prevent sun burning and skin cancer). The mailing will consist of large bottles of sunscreen and a small bottle that can be refilled and attached to their huge key rings that hang off of their belts.
Behavioral: Education
Other: Sunscreen
Experimental: Text Message Reminders
As cues to action, this group will receive 60 cellular telephone text-messages on three random mornings per week during the month of May, June, July, August, and September when UV rays are the highest. Using an internet text-messaging service, the messages will be computer generated and sent to Operating Engineers and contain information about weather conditions and various reminders (e.g., "Put on sunscreen today" or "Wow, it's a hot one, you know what to do!").
Behavioral: Education
Behavioral: Text-Message Reminders
Experimental: Sunscreen and Text Message Reminders
Just as multimodal interventions such as surgery and radiation can be used to treat skin cancer, multimodal behavioral interventions may reduce sun burning and prevent skin cancer. To determine if the combination of these interventional components results in improvements above and beyond the individual parts, both sunscreen and text messaging interventions will be provided in addition to education.
Behavioral: Education
Other: Sunscreen
Behavioral: Text-Message Reminders
Other: Sunscreen and Text Message Reminders
Active Comparator: Education
A 30-minute, picture enhanced power point presentation will be offered to all Operating Engineers during their annual safety trainings. The content of the power point presentation will include information on incidence and prevalence of skin cancer especially among outdoor workers, types of skin cancers and skin cancer risk, sunburn, Sun Protection Factor (SPF), sun protection behaviors including sunscreen use, correct application of sunscreen, types of products, and the new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) labeling of sunscreen products. In addition, other sun protection behaviors such as wearing hats, sunglasses, using shade, etc., will be discussed.
Behavioral: Education

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Sunscreen use
Time Frame: Baseline
Subjects will complete a baseline survey during safety training sessions in Winter when they get the educational intervention. In the past summer, on the days when you were outside in the sunlight, how often did you use sun block (never, some of the time, about half the time, most of the time, always)?
Baseline
Sun Burning
Time Frame: Baseline
Subjects will complete a baseline survey during safety training sessions in Winter when they get the educational intervention. On average, how many times did you get a sunburn this past summer (0, 1, 2, 3, 4 or more times)?
Baseline
Sunscreen use
Time Frame: Post-intervention
Subjects will be texted or phoned this question monthly during the intervention period and will again receive this question on the longer follow up survey up to 5 months after the interventions end. In the past summer, on the days when you were outside in the sunlight, how often did you use sun block (never, some of the time, about half the time, most of the time, always)?
Post-intervention
Sun Burning
Time Frame: Post-intervention
Subjects will be texted or phoned this question monthly during the intervention period and will again receive this question on the longer follow up survey up to 5 months after the interventions end. On average, how many times did you get a sunburn this past summer(0, 1, 2, 3, 4 or more times)?
Post-intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Michigan

Collaborators

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Sonia A Duffy, PhD, RN, University of Michigan

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

February 1, 2012

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2013

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2013

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 26, 2013

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 1, 2013

First Posted (Estimate)

March 5, 2013

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

May 20, 2014

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 19, 2014

Last Verified

May 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • N015454-00

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Skin Cancer Prevention

Clinical Trials on Education

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Belgium

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

Subscribe