The Knowledge and Behavior of University Students about Skin Cancer and Sun Protection: A Cross-Sectional Research

Abstract

Aim: This study was conducted cross-sectional to determine the level of knowledge and behavior of university students about skin cancer and sun protection. Method: The population of the study consisted of 44,763 students studying at a university in 2015-2016. In the sample was used the technique G-power with low effect size (0.10) 95 % power and 80 % confidence and 1634 students joined the research. As a data collection tool; Questionnaire Form, Skin Cancer and Sun Knowledge Scale and Sun Protection Behavior Scale developed by researchers in line with the literature were used. The data of the study was evaluated with the SPSS statistics package program (Version 15.00 Chicago IL, USA) Results: In our study, 74.9% of the students (n=1244) were female and % 25.1(n=410) were male and the mean age was 20.26±2.12. Gender, economic status, educational status of parents, hair color, sun allergy, skin disease, sunspots, having sunburn at any time of life, believing that it can be protected from Skin Cancer and Skin Cancer And Sun İnformation Scale Scores; gender, place of residence and region, economic status, mother and father education level, hair color, number of mole, believing that they can be protected from skin cancer and the Sun Protection Behavior Scale scores were found to be different. Conclusions: According to these results, it was concluded that there was a difference between the personal characteristics of the students and their level of skin cancer, sun knowledge and sun protection.

Keywords

• knowledge
• behaviour
• skin cancer
• sun protection
• students