Sun-safe behaviour among secondary school students in Australia

This paper reports data on the first national survey of sun-protection meas ures of Australian secondary school students. A cross-sectional survey of a representative sample of 23,915 Australian school children in Years 7-12 w as conducted in 1993, Students were questioned about usual sun-protection p ractices, beliefs about skin cancer and suntans, and sunburn history, The r esults showed differences in sun-protection behaviours as a function of 'ye ar level', 'gender', 'skin type' and 'concern about getting cancer' among o thers, Adolescents who believe there is a lot they can do to avoid skin can cer are more likely to engage in sun-protective behaviours, Males were more likely to wear a cap, yet females tended to use sunscreen. The use of clot hing to protect themselves from the sun was higher in males, yet females we re more likely to stay mainly in the shade. All behaviours decreased with a ge. Poorer protective practices were also associated with increased sunburn , except for sunscreen use where the converse was the case. Suntan was stil l a desire for adolescents. While there is considerable room for improvemen t in the sun-protection behaviour of adolescents (particularly those in hig her grades), most students usually take some precautions. However, by Year 12 (17 and 18 year olds) less than half report usually wearing a hat and ju st two-thirds reported usual sunscreen usage.