ClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT03607578Updated Jul 17, 2019

Test of Interventions to Prevent Skin Cancer Among Danes on Vacation in High UV Index Sunny Destinations

An interventional study of Other: Control Group - Minimal Intervention and Experimental: Protection Routine 1 in Sunburn, Ultraviolet Radiation Exposure and Skin Cancer, sponsored by Brian Køster. Completed at 1 site in Denmark. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 99 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2019-07-17.

Sponsored by Brian Køster · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
1,548
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 99 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The aim of the study is to test a series of developed effective interventions targeting Danes going on vacation to sunny destinations to decrease sunburn by increasing use of shade, hats, protective clothing, and sunscreen to prevent skin cancer in the Danish population. It has been estimated that up to 90 % of all skin cancers could be avoided by behavioral changes. One of the main sources of UVR exposure in the Danish population is vacations to destinations with high UV index (UVI).

Read the detailed description

The aim of the study is to test a series of developed effective interventions targeting Danes going on vacation to sunny destinations to decrease sunburn by increasing use of shade, hats, protective clothing, and sunscreen to prevent skin cancer in the Danish population. To achieve the aim of this study we will conduct a randomized controlled trial with four arms during May-Dec 2018. Participants will be Danish adults traveling on vacation in 2018 for a period of 1-3 weeks, recruited from the civil registration system. After enrollment and pretesting, participants will be randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions. Three experimental groups will receive innovative intervention strategies for promoting sun protection practices during vacation - Protection Routine (1), Protection Routine (2) or both Protection Routine (1+2). The fourth experimental condition will be a minimal treatment control group. The primary outcomes of the trial will be a reduction in frequency of sunburn by adherence to the current sun protection advice from the Danish Cancer Society, i.e., use of shade, hats, protective clothing, and sunscreen as secondary outcomes. We hypothesize that the following two interventions will be able to reduce significantly the UVR exposure and risk of sunburns in Danes going on vacation to destinations with high UVI.

The participants of the study are recruited from the Danish civil registration based system. The study population will represent all groups of the Danish population. Eligibility criteria for the project are persons living in Denmark going on vacation in May-December 2018 and having a smartphone compatible with either apple iOS (version 7.0 or newer) or Google Android (version 4.0 or newer). The period May to December is chosen as it includes all types of vacationers. The summer vacation constitutes the majority of the sunny vacations of the Danes. The period includes both the summer, where Danes typically travel to the Mediterranean area and the winter period where travel patterns change a bit to more exotic areas like Thailand, Egypt and the Canarias Islands. Exclusion criteria are persons younger than 18 years of age.

Sun protective behavior, exposure to UVR and sunburn will be evaluated by use of a questionnaire validated by personal electronic UV-measurements. This newly developed survey tool has made it possible in this project to evaluate the skin cancer interventions, without tracking of development of skin cancer which can take several years to develop after excessive UVR exposure. The short time period from intervention to evaluation minimizes recall bias.

The primary success criteria of the effectiveness of the interventions is a 10 % decrease in sunburn fraction in the intervention groups as compared to the control group in the post-intervention measurement, as shown possible in the pilot study.

Furthermore, we aim to reach completion and response rates of 90 % of the total sample

Secondary success criteria are increased awareness on the risk of skin cancer, increased use of protection (shade, clothes, hat and sunscreen) and decreased outdoor exposure when the UVI is highest between 12 and 3 pm. For all secondary success criteria, we aim for an improvement of 10 % between interventions and control group.

02

Conditions studied

  • Sunburn
  • Ultraviolet Radiation Exposure
  • Skin Cancer
  • Malignant Melanoma
  • Non-melanoma Skin Cancer
  • Keratinocyte Skin Cancer

Keywords

  • Prevention
03

In context

Sunburn

29 studies on the registry are indexed under Sunburn; 2 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 1,548 is above the median of 54 across 26 interventional studies indexed under Sunburn.

Browse Sunburn studies →

Lead sponsor

This is the only study on the registry with Brian Køster as lead sponsor.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 99 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Travel for a vacation to a location with higher UVI than Denmark in the trial period (May-December 2018)
  • Access to a smartphone compatible with either iOS (version 7 or newer) or Google Android ( version 4.0 or newer)

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Physically or mentally uncapable to complete the planned intervention routines
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Prevention
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Factorial assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
1,548 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Other
    Control Group - Minimal Intervention

    Minimal intervention

    Behavioral: Other: Control Group - Minimal Intervention

  • Experimental
    Protection Routine 1

    Behavioral: Experimental: Protection Routine 1

  • Experimental
    Protection Routine 2

    Behavioral: Experimental: Protection Routine 2

  • Experimental
    Protection Routine 1+2

    Behavioral: Experimental: Protection Routine 1 · Behavioral: Experimental: Protection Routine 2

Interventions

  • BehavioralOther: Control Group - Minimal Intervention

    Basic Campaign Folder

  • BehavioralExperimental: Protection Routine 1

    New folder, sun advice of Danish Sun Safety Campaign, rationale, prioritization, overview of sun prevention. Activity planner with outdoor activities like bathing, sports and excursions before and after noon (UVI maximum) and indoor activities; shopping, lunch, relaxation and transportation in middle of day and possibility to plan vacation to minimize risk. Instructions for download of UV-App includes use of alert, and information about the features of the app; how to be informed of current UV risk before and during vacation. Link for download of the app is sent by text-message and e-mail. Skintype guide is included in the app and as an individual entity. It includes scoring questions about tan and burn reaction in the sun, a color scale, eye and hair color and freckles. Participants get a description of their skin type and examples of time their particular skin type will resist the sun before erythema occurs at particular UV-levels and functions as an eye-opener.

    Also known as: Intensive information and training in current advice - UVI & Skintype

  • BehavioralExperimental: Protection Routine 2

    The sunscreen application instruction is based on a recently developed thorough application instructions for use of sunscreen to counter the problems and deficits of current sunscreen use. It describes every part of the body, the needed volume for that part and application patterns. The package will also include a hat specifically designed for protection and comfort and the availability of a hat will function to increase the use of hat. The hat is simple bucket hat version with a brim, cheap, in light fabric and foldable for easy packing.

    Also known as: Thorough sunscreen and availability of hat

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Sunburn

    Any erythema (selfdetermined by questionnaire which is sent within a week after travelling home)

    Time frame: Experienced during participants vacationperiod (1-3 weeks within may-dec 2018)

Secondary outcomes

  1. Awareness of skin cancer risk

    determined by questionnaire which is sent within a week after travelling home

    Time frame: Experienced during participants vacationperiod (1-3 weeks within may-dec 2018)

  2. Use of sunprotection;shade

    determined by questionnaire which is sent within a week after travelling home

    Time frame: Experienced during participants vacationperiod (1-3 weeks within may-dec 2018)

  3. Use of sunprotection;clothes

    Time frame: Experienced during participants vacationperiod (1-3 weeks within may-dec 2018)

  4. Use of sunprotection;hat

    determined by questionnaire which is sent within a week after travelling home

    Time frame: Experienced during participants vacationperiod (1-3 weeks within may-dec 2018)

  5. Use of sunprotection;sunscreen

    determined by questionnaire which is sent within a week after travelling home

    Time frame: Experienced during participants vacationperiod (1-3 weeks within may-dec 2018)

  6. Sunburn body site

    determined by questionnaire which is sent within a week after travelling home; relation between relevance of sunprotection and sunburned area

    Time frame: Experienced during participants vacationperiod (1-3 weeks within may-dec 2018)

  7. Exposure in UV peak hours

    determined by questionnaire which is sent within a week after travelling home

    Time frame: Experienced during participants vacationperiod (1-3 weeks within may-dec 2018)

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Danish Cancer Society
    Copenhagen, 2100, Denmark
08

References and documents

Study documents

PDFs hosted by the registry, ClinicalTrials.gov.

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Undecided

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Ran from Aug 2018 to primary completion in Jan 2019, 5 months.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Feb 20, 2018
First posted
Jul 31, 2018
StartActual
Aug 1, 2018
Primary completionActual
Jan 11, 2019
CompletionActual
Jan 11, 2019
Last update
Jul 17, 2019
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jul 17, 2019, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03607578
Lead sponsor
Brian Køster
Responsible party
Brian Køster (Research scientist, Danish Cancer Society) — Sponsor-investigator
First posted
Jul 31, 2018
Start date
Aug 1, 2018
Primary completion
Jan 11, 2019
Completion
Jan 11, 2019
Last update
Jul 17, 2019

Oversight

FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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This study is completed, as verified in Jul 2019. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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