Implementation of the SunSmart program and population sun protection behaviour in Melbourne Australia

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Tamara Tabbakh, Cancer Council Victoria; Angela Volkov, Cancer Council Victoria; Melanie Wakefield, Cancer Council Victoria; Suzanne Dobbinson, Cancer Council Victoria

Version: View help for Version V2

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
1980s-2010s-Decades-Final.dta	application/x-stata	3.7 MB	08/26/2019 05:24:PM
Data-guide-Final.docx	application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document	33.4 KB	08/27/2019 03:03:AM

Project Citation:

Tabbakh, Tamara, Volkov, Angela, Wakefield, Melanie, and Dobbinson, Suzanne. Implementation of the SunSmart program and population sun protection behaviour in Melbourne Australia. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-09-01. https://doi.org/10.3886/E111567V2

Project Description

Summary: Cancer Council Victoria's Sun Protection Survey (SPS) has provided comprehensive data to assess the prevalence of sun-related knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and sunburn among the population in Victoria since 1987. These data have been used to inform and evaluate the implementation of SunSmart, the long-running skin cancer prevention program in Victoria. The surveys were conducted on behalf on Cancer Council Australia as part of a larger national survey in the later years (2003-2017). Essentially equivalent methods were used across all survey years. The methods described here pertain to the data prepared for a manuscript entitled "Implementation of the SunSmart program and population sun protection behaviour in Melbourne Australia". The study used a cross-sectional (observational) design, recruiting on a weekly basis a representative sample of Victorian adolescents (14-17 years) and adults (18-69 years) to telephone interviews during the summer months. Survey data for 14 summers between 1987 and 2017 are available for analysis. The detailed measures focus on respondents' activities, behaviour and sunburn on the weekend or public holiday prior to the respondents' interview. Interviews were held within two to four days of the reported behaviour to minimise recall bias. The behavioural measures which focused on a specific time and location enabled linkage with weather and UV records for Melbourne on the dates relevant to the respondents' reported behaviour. The specific data appended were: (i) the 3pm temperature and mean UV Index between 11am-3pm (DST) for the weekend date; and (ii) the number of days of rainfall (1mm or more), number of days of heavy cloud cover (6 oktas or more), and median 3pm temperature over the past month.

Funding Sources: Cancer Council Victoria (1987-2002); Cancer Council Australia (2003-2017); Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing (2006-07 and 2013-14)

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Tanning attitude; Sun protection; Skin cancer prevention; Sunburn; Maximal protection

Geographic Coverage: Melbourne, Australia

Time Period(s): 1987 – 2017

Data Type(s): survey data

Methodology

Sampling: Quotas were used to ensure the sample was proportional to the population by age and sex, while younger respondents were oversampled in some years.

Data Source: Cross-sectional weekly telephone interviews

Collection Mode(s): telephone interview

Weights: Population-based weights based on the estimated resident population of Melbourne by age and sex.

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V2 [2019-09-01]

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