Iowa
Sun-Protection Curriculum Targets Preschoolers Through Child Care Providers
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Public Health Problem
In 2003, Iowa released its comprehensive cancer
control (CCC) plan, Changing the Face of Cancer in Iowa 2003�2005. The plan identified 50 strategies for improving state cancer prevention
and control efforts. Recognizing that not all of these strategies could be addressed during the 2-year period covered by the plan, the Iowa Consortium for Comprehensive Cancer Control selected eight priority strategies; established eight corresponding implementation groups; and charged the groups to develop projects that address these strategies. Each group has been able to apply for up to $8,000 of CCC funding with which to plan, implement, and evaluate its project.
One of the priority strategies targeted the problem of sun exposure among children and adolescents. Iowa ranks fourth in the United States for sunburns. The strategy was to implement
community-based interventions, focusing on children and adolescents, that 1) increase awareness that sunburn is a risk factor for skin cancer, and 2) implement policy changes designed
to help reduce overexposure to the sun.
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Program Example
The Youth Sun Exposure (YSE) Implementation Group adapted an existing early-childhood sun-protection curriculum for use by Iowa child care providers. Partners providing in-kind staff time and resources for the project included the state health department's CCC and Healthy Child Care Iowa programs and Office of Multicultural
Health. The curriculum, which addresses specific child development domains, includes reproducible activity handouts, stickers, and a video targeted to preschool children, as well as an audiocassette with songs from the video and a CD-ROM containing the entire curriculum.
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Implication and Impact
The YSE Implementation Group held a statewide videoconference for 74 child care liaison personnel
in February 2005. These personnel were trained in how to use the sun-protection curriculum
so that they, in turn, could train individual child care providers throughout the state. Since then, 750 curriculum sets have been delivered to the liaisons for distribution to child care providers.
The YSE group is conducting an evaluation to determine whether changes have been made to child care providers' policies or physical environments
in response to the curriculum.
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Contact Information
Comprehensive Cancer Control Program*
Bureau of Chronic Disease Prevention and Management
Iowa Department of Public Health
Lucas State Office Building
321 East 12th Street
Des Moines,
IA 50319-0075
(515) 281-0925
Fax: (515) 281-6475
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