NCT03237013

Strategies to Promote Skin Health

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 219 (actual)
• Sponsor: San Diego State University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The purpose of the intended proposed research is to investigate and determine best strategies for preventing skin cancer for emerging adults. To answer this question, the investigators intended to pilot a randomized control trial with three arms: 1) Facial Morphing, 2) Mindfulness, and 3) Treatment as usual. The population from which the sample was drawn from was undergraduate psychology students from a large public university in Southern California, who report recent indoor/outdoor tanning, and intentions for future tanning.

Detailed description

Indoor and outdoor tanning are two of the most common risk factors for developing skin cancer. Predictors of indoor and outdoor tanning including negative body image and negative affect. Thus, to subsequently prevent skin cancer, interventions should focus on appearance concerns and negative affect. To date, limited brief efficacious skin cancer preventions exist. One potential program (APRIL AGE) a facial morphing software program, has recently been evaluated as a potential prevention program of skin cancer. However, limited data exists on the long term benefits of this program. Additionally, brief mindfulness programs have been found to be efficacious in preventing other health risk behaviors (e.g., smoking, negative affect, eating behaviors). To the investigators' knowledge, these brief mindfulness interventions have yet to be applied in skin cancer prevention. Thus, the investigators sought to compare the relative efficacy of the facial morphing intervention and the mindfulness intervention vs. control condition (treatment as usual). It was hypothesized that both facial morphing and mindfulness would lead to reductions in tanning behavior compared to the TAU condition. The investigators also tested contrasts between the facial morphing and mindfulness conditions, however, no directional hypotheses could be generated, due to the dearth of prior data on these interventions in skin cancer prevention.

Conditions

• Skin Cancer
• Skin Cancer Melanoma
• Squamous Cell Carcinoma
• Basal Cell Carcinoma

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Facial Morphing Intervention	Participants assigned to this condition were exposed to facial morphing technology that displays the progression of facial-ageing up to 72years, both with and without damage from UV exposure.
BEHAVIORAL	Mindfulness Intervention	Participants assigned to this condition engaged in a self-guided mindfulness intervention audio tape. This intervention instructed participants to pay attention to the present moment, with a non-judgemental stance. For example, participants were instructed to notice their breath, thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, and to internally describe them, without passing judgement

Timeline

• Start date: 2016-02-18
• Primary completion: 2016-12-14
• Completion: 2017-01-14
• First posted: 2017-08-02
• Last updated: 2019-07-05
• Results posted: 2019-07-05

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States