BRIEF REPORT - AN EMPIRICALLY DERIVED EDUCATIONAL-PROGRAM FOR DETECTING AND PREVENTING SKIN-CANCER

College and high-school students were administered a questionnaire to assess their knowledge about skin cancer, and afterward an educational program was designed to correct the identified deficiencies. Results showed that the students were relatively uninformed about how to recognize and prevent skin cancer - high-school students more so than college students - but that their knowledge of the disease (e.g., risk factors, preventive measures, and identification of "warning signs" for early detection) increased significantly after training. Some forgetting was noted at a 2-week follow-up but knowledge levels were still significantly higher than baseline. If these findings are representative of the general population, more preventive education will be needed in this area. This is especially true because the potentially deadly melanoma appears to be increasing at an alarming rate. © 1991 Plenum Publishing Corporation.