ABSTRACT

This research is performed to determine the sun protection behaviour of the nursing school students. This descriptive study is performed amoung 278 students of the nursing school who agreed to participate in this research. The data was collected by a form which includes demographic data and the data of sun protection behaviour of the students and by Fitzpatrick Scale which determines skin types of students. The students are all female with an mean age of 20.56 ±1.14. 94.6% of the students have a nevus on their body, 24.1% have a sun spot and 1.8% have a family member with skin cancer, and 64% have an insolation habit. None of the students has skin type V and VI, 36.7% have skin type I and II and 4% have skin type IV. Among students preferences of sun protection behaviour, using sunscreen cream/lotion and prefering shadow areas takes the first place. In addition, sunscreen cream/lotion usage among students with sunspots is significantly higher when compared to others (χ2=8.693, p=0.003); among students with possibility of insolation sun glass usage (χ2=18.642, p<0.001) and sunscreen cream/lotion usage (χ2=36.684, p<0.001) is significantly higher to others. Although the students behaviour for protection against the effect of the sunlights is generally positive, (usage of sunscreen cream/lotion, prefering shadow areas), there are some behaviours that students did not into consideration for sun protection behaviour(almost the half of them do not use sun glasses, more then the half of them being outside at times during intense solar radiation).