mySmartCheck, a Digital Intervention to Promote Skin Self-examination Among Individuals Diagnosed With or at Risk for Melanoma: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Abstract

Background: Regular skin self-examination (SSE) reduces melanoma mortality but is not often conducted.

Purpose: To promote SSE performance in individuals at increased risk for melanoma.

Methods: One hundred sixteen individuals at heightened risk for development of melanoma (i.e., personal/family history of melanoma, high-risk mole phenotype) who did not conduct a thorough SSE during in the prior 3 months were randomly assigned to receive either an automated internet-based intervention (mySmartCheck) or usual care (UC). One hundred sixteen participants completed surveys before random assignment and 99 completed the follow-up survey 13-weeks afterward. The primary outcome was participant self-reported examination (SSE) of all 15 parts of the body in the last 3 months. Secondary outcomes were SSE of any part of the body in the last 3 months and number of body parts examined during the last SSE.

Results: More mySmartCheck participants examined all 15 body parts (32.6% vs. 7.1%, p = .001). More individuals in mySmartCheck reported conducting SSE on any body part than those in UC (81.4% vs. 62.5%, p = .04). Effect sizes were large (d = 1.19 all 15 body parts) to moderate (d = 0.55 for any body part). mySmartCheck participants examined more body areas than UC participants (12.7 vs. 10.3, p = 0.003) during the last SSE. Participants in mySmartCheck reported higher levels of knowledge of suspicious lesions, SSE benefits, SSE self-efficacy, and planning for SSE, and lower SSE barriers, than those assigned to UC.

Conclusions: mySmartCheck had a significant positive impact on SSE performance and behaviors. Additional research with a larger sample size, a longer follow-up, and more varied clinical settings is needed.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov registration # NCT03725449 (https://ichgcp.net/clinical-trials-registry/NCT03725449).

Keywords: Melanoma; Online interventions; Prevention; Skin cancer; Skin self-examination; mySmartCheck.

© Society of Behavioral Medicine 2021. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Figures

Fig. 1.

Flow diagram of study selection.