Grant Number:	1R21CA318844-01 Interpret this number
Primary Investigator:	Hurtado De Mendoza Casaus, Alejandra
Organization:	Georgetown University
Project Title:	SOLAR: Promoting Skin Cancer Prevention Among Outdoor Workers
Fiscal Year:	2026

Brief Summary/Abstract Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States, and solar ultraviolet exposure is its leading modifiable risk factor. Outdoor workers receive up to eight times more UV radiation than indoor workers and have a 60% greater risk of skin cancer, but encounter multiple barriers to engaging in skin cancer prevention, including low awareness of skin cancer, misconceptions about susceptibility, and low knowledge about proper sunscreen use and protective clothing. Many workplaces lack practices to provide sun protection to workers. To address these gaps, we developed a narrative video titled “Miguel Takes Charge” that is tailored to outdoor workers and grounded in theoretical behavioral models. The video portrays Miguel, an outdoor worker who is taking over his father’s landscaping business and is diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma. Through his story, the video discusses the characteristics of skin cancer, models proper sun protective behaviors, and demonstrates how workplace norms around sun protection can shift. The video script was informed by formative focus groups with outdoor workers and refined with input from a multidisciplinary Community Advisory Board (CAB). After watching the video, focus group participants found the video to be very clear, informative, and appealing. They highlighted the need of engaging business owners to implement the video at work settings in the future. Using a community-engaged approach, we will examine the acceptability and preliminary efficacy of our telenovela video in enhancing psychosocial outcomes and sun protection behaviors in outdoor workers in a randomized controlled trial comparing our telenovela video with a publicly available fact sheet (N=80). We will also conduct interviews with business owners (N=20) to assess the acceptability and the feasibility of implementing our video and sun protective measures at business settings for future multilevel interventions. Specific Aims. Aim 1. Evaluate the preliminary efficacy of our video vs. fact sheet on enhancing sun protective behaviors. Video arm participants will have higher self-reported use of sun protective behaviors at 3 months (H.1.1) Aim 2. Evaluate the impact of our video vs. fact sheet on hypothesized mediators of behavior change and on acceptability. Video arm participants will demonstrate greater improvements in knowledge and self-efficacy for sun protective behaviors immediately post-intervention and at 3 months (H.2.1) and higher acceptability (H.2.2). Aim 3. Conduct a mixed-methods implementation needs assessment with outdoor company business owners to assess the acceptability, feasibility and barriers and facilitators for implementing our video and other sun protective measures at business settings to inform development of a multilevel intervention.





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