SDSU Study Answers Burning Question about Sun Protection

Project Sunwise Teaches Sun Safety to Local U.S. Postal Workers

Contact:
Gina Speciale
SDSU Marketing & Communications
(619) 594-4563 office
speciale@mail.sdsu.edu

SAN DIEGO (Wednesday, June 20, 2007) — It's something we've all been told a million times: if you are going to be in the sun wear sunscreen and a hat. Despite those relatively simple preventative measures, many outdoor workers do not protect themselves, even though they receive six to eight times more ultraviolet radiation than does a typical indoor worker.

Watch NBC 7/39 news story about Project Sunwise.

"Because of their larger amounts of sun exposure, outdoor workers have a higher risk for skin cancer," said Joni Mayer, professor of public health at San Diego State University. "Even though they are exposed to the sun approximately four hours a day while delivering mail, only 25 percent of the letter carriers we originally surveyed said that they always wore sunscreen or always wore a wide-brimmed hat while delivering mail."

Which raises the question: if sun protection was more accessible would people in high-risk groups like outdoor workers protect themselves more often?

With support from researchers in SDSU's Graduate School of Public Health, department of psychology and a $2.4 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, Mayer created Project SUNWISE to find out. Project SUNWISE focuses on one particular group of outdoor workers, U.S. Postal Service letter carriers. She and her research team from SDSU implemented a sun safety study at 70 postal stations in Southern California, including 53 in San Diego County. During the first 2 years of the study, half the stations received the intervention program and half did not receive it. More than 2,600 carriers volunteered to participate in the evaluation.

Project SUNWISE examined whether U.S. Postal Service letter carriers who received a sun safety intervention would increase their sun protection behaviors.

Two San Diego stations helped with the development of the program, providing input on intervention strategies and in the design of the special wide brim hat that would be used by participating carriers.

For the study, Mayer and her team of researchers provided sunscreen pump bottles in the post office locker rooms and distributed carrier-tested wide brim hats to the outdoor workers. Throughout the two-year program, Project SUNWISE health educators also delivered periodic onsite education presentations at the letter-carriers' regular staff meetings.

Within the first three months, carriers at stations that received the SUNWISE program greatly increased their use of both sunscreen and wide-brim hats, compared to their use before the program; and they continued their use for at least three years. Carriers at stations that did not receive the program showed no changes over time in their use of sunscreen and hats.

"In the long term, a program like Project SUNWISE may help decrease health care costs for employers of outdoor workers," said Mayer, also a member of the Moores UCSD Cancer Center.

Richard Orias, a letter carrier who distributes mail around San Diego's Old Town, said the program really helped him and his co-workers keep sun safety in mind. Though the study is over now, Orias said he hasn't stopped the good habits he developed as a result of Project Sunwise.

"Once the study was over, I started a recycling campaign to raise money to purchase sunscreen for our locker room," Orias said.

For the second phase of the program, Mayer hopes to develop a partnership with the U.S. Postal Service, the National Association of Letter Carriers, sunscreen companies and other organizations interested in sun safety. She hopes one day the SUNWISE program might be shared with letter carriers throughout the U.S. and eventually other outdoor work settings.

Project SUNWISE's findings were published earlier this year in the American Journal of Public Health.

San Diego State University is the oldest and largest higher education institution in the San Diego region. Since it was founded in 1897, the university has grown to offer bachelor's degrees in 81 areas, master's degrees in 73 areas and doctorates in 16 areas. SDSU's more than 34,000 students participate in an academic curriculum distinguished by direct contact with faculty and an increasing international emphasis that prepares them for a global future. For more information, visit www.sdsu.edu.

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