Implementation of Occupational Sun Safety at a 2-Year Follow-Up in a Randomized Trial: Comparison of Sun Safe Workplaces Policy Intervention to Attention Control

Abstract

Purpose: Implementation of employer sun safety actions was assessed in a 2-year follow-up to an occupational sun protection policy intervention. Design: Two-year follow-up assessment in a randomized pretest–posttest controlled design. Setting: Local government organizations with workers in public safety, public works, and parks and recreation. Participants: Sixty-three local government organizations (participation = 64%) and 330 frontline supervisors and 1454 workers. Intervention: Sun Safe Workplaces (SSW) intervention promoting occupational sun safety policy and education. Measures: Observations of SSW messages and sun safety items and surveys on organizations’ communication and actions on sun safety. Analysis: Comparison between SSW and control groups was conducted using regression models and adjusted for clustering where appropriate, with α criterion set at P = .05 (2-tailed). Results: At intervention worksites, more SSW messages ( P < .001) and sun safety items ( P = .025) were observed; more frontline supervisors reported organizations provided free/reduced price sunscreen ( P = .005) and communicated about sun safety ( P < .001); and more workers recalled receiving sun safety messages ( P < .001) and sun safety training ( P <.001) compared to control organizations. Implementation was greater at larger than smaller intervention organizations for wide-brimmed hats ( P = .009), long work pants ( P = .017), and shade structures ( P = .036). Older workers received the most written messages ( P = .015). Conclusions: Sun Safe Workplaces appeared to produce actions by organizations to support employee sun safety. Large organizations may have processes, communication channels, and slack resources to achieve more implementation.