Parental and primary caregiver's attitudes towards sun safe hat and sunscreen use at a major national children's playground in Canberra, Australia.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The sun safety habits of children are developed throughout the childhood years under the influence of peers, parents, family members and other adult caregivers, as well as through education. This study assessed the sun safety attitudes and actual practices of parents and primary caregivers at a large public playground over a twelve-month period in 2019/2020. The desire to have an educational sun safety message at major playgrounds was also assessed. METHODS: Parents and primary caregivers at our study playground in Canberra, Australia, were offered an eight-question survey. Data analysis compared the proportion of respondents who selected each sub-question. Surveys were conducted on a minimum of three days per week for a twelve-month period, excluding the period of May to the beginning of August when the ultraviolet radiation index (UVI) is typically below three in Canberra. RESULTS: Less than half of the children at the study playground wore a sun safe hat the whole of their playtime when the UVI ≥ 3. Although 80.5% parents and primary caregivers acknowledged the importance of modelling good sun safety behaviours, most adults did not wear a sun safe hat or apply sunscreen. 93.3% of adult respondents desired some form of permanent educational message at playgrounds to encourage better sun safety. CONCLUSION: There is significant room for improvement in the sun safety practices of primary caregivers and children at our study playground. The vast majority of respondents desired a permanent sun safety message display at major playgrounds.

Availability of Hats That Meet Australian Sun-safety Standards at a Major Canberra Shopping Complex.

Good sun-safety practice includes wearing sun-protective hats that must meet defined photoprotective criteria such as the 2017 Australian/New Zealand standard (AS/NZS 4399:2017). This study investigated the availability of sun-safe hats during a three-day cross-sectional survey in November 2019 by visiting every shop in a single large multi-store shopping complex in Australia. Hats were categorized according to whether the target customer was an adult or child prior to the assessment of design suitability for sun safety according to the standard. Of the 260 shops in the study shopping center, 30 (12%) sold hats. Of the 524 hats examined in the study, 69% of all commercially available hats for adults and children did not meet the standard. Of the 9% of hats that had swing tags claiming an Ultraviolet Protection Factor of 50 (UPF-50), about half were not sun safe. Further research is needed to investigate the possibility of whether sun-safety hat standards should be given to retailers of hats for display, or whether manufacturers could be required to put warning labels on all hats that do not meet sun-safety hat standards.