Nudging construction workers towards better sun-safety behaviour: summary of the evidence for practitioners

Abstract

Excessive exposure to solar ultra-violet (UV) radiation can cause skin cancer, but inadequate exposure to sunlight limits the production of vitamin D. We report a text messaging and supportive smartphone app intervention to reduce UV exposure in the summer and promote vitamin D intake in winter. Results suggest that many workers had insufficient circulating vitamin D in winter, but for the intervention group vitamin D levels increased significantly compared to the control group. In summer, workers were exposed to relatively high UV levels, which were sufficient to importantly increase their risk skin cancer. The sun-safe intervention failed to reduce exposure to solar UV, which we attribute to an entrenched belief that a suntan is desirable. We argue that a more prescriptive risk-based approach is needed to reduce the risk of skin cancer among outdoor construction workers.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Sunlight
• ultraviolet
• UV
• exposure
• construction
• outdoor work
• skin cancer
• vitamin D
• 25(OH)D
• health promotion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) (http://www.iosh.co.uk/NTTL/Home/About-NTTL.aspx).