The sun safety programme of HPA launched a campaign, ‘Don’t Let the Sun Get Under Your Skin’ (UYS), to promote sun-safe knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours among young New Zealanders. Two of the main campaign activities include events that feature the use of an ultraviolet (UV) camera to show young people the damage they have on their face from sun exposure and an UYS Facebook page. An evaluation of the UYS campaign was undertaken to explore any possible impact on the target audiences and to help guide the strategic direction of the youth sun safety programme.
Methodology
The research methodology involved a quasi-experimental evaluation design, comprising a post-test with the three following groups of respondents classified by their exposure level to the campaign:
- Exposed group: those who heard of UYS
- Highly Exposed group: those who had their UV photo taken at an UYS event or assembly
- Comparison group: those who reported no awareness of or exposure to the campaign.
An online survey was developed to measure the key knowledge and attitudes relevant to the campaign objectives. Recruitment methods included Facebook advertising and contacting participants who had attended an UYS event during the summer of 2013/14. Logistic regression was used to compare agreement with attitudinal and knowledge-based statements between the three exposure groups. Odds ratios were calculated to compare statistically significant differences, adjusting for gender, age, and skin type.
The final data set contains 234 respondents. Of the respondents who were recruited from having attended an UYS event or assembly, 12.3% participated in the survey. Of the respondents who were recruited via Facebook advertisements inviting them to participate in the survey, the response rate is unknown, as exposure to the advertisements is not known.