THE RELATIVE EFFECTS OF A HEALTH-BASED VERSUS AN APPEARANCE-BASED INTERVENTION DESIGNED TO INCREASE SUNSCREEN USE

As the incidence of all types of skin cancer continues to rise,(1) it is important to attempt to increase our arsenal of effective messages for convincing individuals to protect themselves against the primary r isk factor for skin cancer: excessive exposure to ultraviolet radiatio n.(2) Most educational messages, and most research, regarding ''safe-s un'' practices have focused on the risk of developing skin cancer.(3) However, repeated sun exposure is also responsible for photoaging-prem ature aging of the skin in the form of wrinkles and age spots. The pri mary purpose of this experiment was to determine whether focusing on t he appearance-based consequences (i.e., the prevention of photoaging) might be an effective technique for getting individuals to use sunscre en more frequently. Emphasizing the prevention of photoaging might be at least as effective for getting individuals to use sunscreen as emph asizing the prevention of skin cancer because (1) individuals may feel relatively more vulnerable to developing wrinkles and age spots becau se they are more common and more easily noticed(4,5); (2) the motivati on to get and maintain a tan has been demonstrated to be appearance-ba sed''(4,6); thus, emphasizing the negative effects of sun exposure on appearance may be important for motivating protective measures; and (3 ) it may have more impact because the information is likely to be more novel. This study also sought to determine whether individuals just p ast adolescence would be more or less susceptible to a photoaging mess age than those in their late twenties and thirties, who are at the age where they are likely beginning to experience some wrinkles and age s pots. Finally, the possibility that any observed effects of the preven tion messages on intentions to use sunscreen might be mediated by subj ects' beliefs about their susceptibility to photoaging and skin cancer , the severity of these disorders, the efficacy of using sunscreen, an d their self-efficacy for using sunscreen(7,8) was examined.