[Effective interventions to prevent health damage related to ultraviolet exposure: a review of the literature]

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to review the current scientific knowledge on health promotion interventions designed to prevent health damage caused by natural ultraviolet (UV) exposure. The current state of knowledge in this area was assessed using a specific method including a review of literature reviews and a classification of health promotion interventions identified using scientific databases. We found a large number of promising programmes. Briefly, some interventions based on environmental changes and provision of shade were considered to be promising. Health education programmes delivered at school have been proven to be effective in various settings, from nursery school to college. Some parentbased interventions designed to promote children's sun protection behaviours have been shown to be relevant. Appearance-based actions, using for instance photoaging information, may be effective. Finally, some multi-component interventions in community settings appear to be promising. These findings present a number of limitations due to the marked diversity of outcome measures and the general quality of the documents reviewed. Furthermore, most interventions are poorly described in the reviews. The present study should therefore be considered to be a first step that needs to be completed by a more detailed description of the promising interventions and of their transposition to the French context.