Promoting sun safety among US Postal Service letter carriers: impact of a 2-year intervention

Abstract

Objectives: We examined whether US Postal Service letter carriers who received a sun safety intervention would wear wide-brim hats and sunscreen significantly more often than those who did not receive the intervention.

Methods: We used a 2-group randomized design with 2662 evaluation cohort participants from 70 US postal stations. Evaluations were conducted at baseline, 3 months, 1 year, and 2 years. Questionnaire items assessed occupational use of sun-screen and wide-brim hats. The 2-year sun safety intervention included the provision of wide-brim hats, accessible sunscreen, reminders, and 6 educational sessions.

Results: At the 3-month follow-up evaluations, the odds ratio (OR) for regular sun-screen use was 2.8 times higher among the intervention group than among the control group (95% confidence interval [CI]=2.2, 3.5); at the 2-year follow-up evaluations, the rate was still significantly higher (OR=2.0; 95% CI=1.6, 2.6). Intervention group participants also had significantly higher rates of hat use, with the differences remaining consistent across all follow-ups (OR=2.9; 95% CI=2.3, 3.6).

Conclusions: The intervention should be disseminated to postal stations nationwide and possibly to other occupational groups that work outdoors.

FIGURE 1—

Flow chart of participants in Project SUNWISE through 2 years of follow-up: Southern California, 2001–2003. ^aTwo stations withdrew from the study (79 participants).