Team:Manchester/Surveys SUS
Sunscreen Use and Sun Habits Survey
- We characterised our sample based on a “sun score” calculated from their answers and age, providing us with consumer profiles and greater understanding of how our project will be used in real world.
- We surprisingly found that having a personal experience with skin cancer does not promote good sunscreen habits.
- We saw how SPF levels vary across countries, indicating that people modify their sunscreen habits depending on their immediate environment.
- We tested participants' understanding of sunscreen labels and identified confusion in the distinction between physical and chemical sunscreen.
Our survey
- Survey was open from 1st August to 22nd September 2020.
- Respondents were approached via social media, people could then choose to participate or not.
- Response rate = 100%.
- N = 75 responses.
Our project is aiming to produce Hipposudoric Acid to act as an alternative to conventional UV filters, ultimately this project may develop into producing a consumer safe sunscreen. For this reason it is vital for our team to understand how people use and interact with sunscreen, this will help us design a product that is effective and appropriate for consumers.
- Survey was released on Manchester Students’ Group (MSG) on Facebook and shared among our teams’ individual profiles.
- Survey was also promoted on our team Instagram (igem_manchester) and advertised by our partner team St. Andrews.
- Links to the survey were accompanied with a message explaining the experimental aim of the survey, including an explanation of iGEM, people were then allowed to decide if they wanted to participate or not.
- The surveys were open to responses from the 1st of August to the 22nd of September 2020.
- The platform used for this survey was google forms.
The issue with this release approach is that it may result in a biased sample; members of MSG are mostly educated early 20-year olds whose sunscreen habits will be different to that of the general population. This may mean that our conclusions cannot be applied to the entire global population, this bias was considered when performing statistical and descriptive analysis.
Characterising our Sample of Respondents
We began our survey by characterising our respondents into their respective generations and home countries. Overall our oldest respondent was born in 1956 and we had representation of lots of age groups up to 17 years old born in 2003.
- 73.3% of respondents classified as Generation Z.
- 16% were Millennials.
- 6.6% were Generation X.
- 4% were Baby Boomers.
This large discrepancy limits our sample, often individuals within the same generation have similar views and habits because they came of age in similar social climates. Therefore, although our survey has lots of ages represented within the sample, the conclusions drawn from this survey may not be applicable to the general population.
- 74.6% of our respondents are from the United Kingdom.
- The remaining respondents are all from northern developed or developing countries which speak English.
This is a limitation of our survey design, in order to make our survey more accessible we should have produced non-English versions which might have promoted a more global response. This could also be a result of our limited release option because the majority of people we interact with on Facebook will be English speaking. An important consequence of this is that our sample has a low global representation and our findings cannot be applied to, e.g. southern and tropical countries, where sun exposure has a very different quality. For instance, the United Kingdom is a temperate country that doesn’t experience strong UV and therefore we may see lower sunscreen use from our sample than if a global population was represented. Moreover, our conclusions will not be directly applicable to communities from a more diverse range of cultural backgrounds - this is a limitation on which we reflected throughout our work, in agreement with our project values. Keeping this limitation in mind, our sample is quite large (n=75) and therefore, any conclusions made are likely to be statistically significant for the studied population and not the result of chance.
Sunscreen Use
- 43.4% used sunscreen only when it is sunny.
- 13.2% use sunscreen often but not daily.
- 10.5% of respondents use it everyday regardless of the weather.
This is lower than we were anticipating, after performing our media analysis of YouTube we had identified a generational shift in the representation of sunscreen as a beauty product and noted that young creators were promoting daily use of sunscreen. Our survey results demonstrate that this behaviour has not yet been adopted among young people and is localised to YouTube. Overtime, it may become more mainstream and further evidence for this is discussed below.
- 27.7% of respondents said they rarely use sunscreen and only one respondent reported never using sunscreen.
This result suggests that the majority of respondents in our sample use sunscreen during periods of high UV exposure. On the other hand, this result could be explained by the largest group in our sample descending from the UK, a low UV country.
We then sorted our respondents into their respective generational groups and analysed their sunscreen use again.
- Millennials (1981 - 1996) and generation Z (1997 - 2012) were more likely to use sunscreen generally or on sunny days.
- Older generations used sunscreen less often however, this could be a reflection of their small sample representation.
- Only participants from Generation Z reported any daily use of sunscreen.
This could mean that the trends we identified in our YouTube analysis are becoming more mainstream, it is possible that over time more individuals from Generation Z might adopt daily use of sunscreen due to its increasing representation as a beauty product.
We then calculated “sun scores” by awarding or removing points based on respondents' answers to questions about their sun and sunscreen habits. We realise that research on UV and sunscreen can be conflicting and what is appropriate in one country may not apply to the climate. For this reason we tried to score people in accordance to what the majority of the research agrees on. Our key for how we calculated this score can be found below this report.
We wanted to see how age affects an individual's sun score. We chose not to compare sun score and country because in high UV countries wearing sunscreen will be important regardless of your age. Therefore, we used a homogenous population from our UK respondents to minimise the impact of confounding variables. An analysis for all countries was also performed however, the conclusions for this analysis might be more heavily impacted by other factors.
- For the UK respondents a one-way ANOVA was performed and a p value of 0.3696 was obtained.
- Our heterogeneous population yielded a p value of 0.2537.
- Multiple comparisons tests were found to be insignificant.
This means we did not find evidence supporting a relationship between an individual’s age and their sun and sunscreen habits. This is important for our team because it informs us that we do not need to modify our marketing techniques depending on age and that our product will not be discriminated against by a particular age group. These results demonstrate that across our sample sun and sunscreen habits are complicated and are influenced by a range of factors and we will have to navigate this to ensure our product success.
Does having a personal experience with Skin Cancer impact sunscreen habits?
The first thing we wanted to test within our study was the prevalence of skin cancer and if having a personal experience with skin cancer modified people’s sun habits.
- 29.3% of respondents (22 individuals) said they knew someone or had themselves been diagnosed with skin cancer.
- 66.6% of respondents had not had a personal experience with skin cancer.
- One-way ANOVA yielded a P value of 0.2018.
- Post hoc turkey multiple comparison test was applied and found to be insignificant (P values = 0.7254, 0.1800 and 0.2856 respectively).
These results were extremely surprising as they demonstrated that having a personal experience with skin cancer did not promote better sunscreen and sun habits. This implies that use of sunscreen is determined by other values and that prevention of skin cancer is not the only consideration being made when using and interacting with sunscreen. This is useful for us because it shows that we do not have to heavily rely on the skin cancer narrative to sell our product but rather we explore other selling points such as photoaging.
What SPF levels do people use?
We also wanted to know what SPF people use and if this varies depending on the country the respondent lives in.
- 43.4% of respondents use an SPF of 30.
- 39.5% of respondents use SPF 50+.
This might mean that when using sunscreen individuals use a high SPF to ensure a high level of protection. When these results are categorised by country we can see that hotter climate countries use SPF 50+ while cooler countries use lower SPF levels. This suggests that respondents are adapting their sunscreen use depending on their personal, immediate environment. This result informs us of where we can expect high sales of higher SPF products which will be very useful when deciding what markets to target in the future.
Do people understand sunscreen labels?
From previous human practice work we had become increasingly aware of high consumer confusion when it comes to understanding sunscreens. Therefore, we wanted to test this by asking our respondents if their sunscreen protects from UVA and UVB radiation and if our respondents know the difference between a chemical and physical sunscreen.
- 41.3% of our respondents were unsure whether their sunscreen provided protection from UVA and UVB. This suggests that individuals do not know what the labels on their sunscreen packaging mean.
- 76.3% of respondents do not know the difference between a physical and a chemical sunscreen.
- 75% were unaware that two forms of sunscreen existed.
Physical and chemical sunscreens can cause irritation on problematic skin if the wrong type is applied. These high levels of uncertainty about the products people are buying is worrying because it suggests that individuals may not be receiving protection equally to the indicated SPF level. This reduces the effectiveness of the sunscreen. Our team will attempt to rectify this problem by including information about physical/chemical sunscreen and sunscreen labels in our Behaving Responsibly page.
Conclusions
In conclusion this survey has allowed us to better understand how people will interact and use our product which has driven our implementation discussions, for example the importance of having a range of SPF options available. We have identified potential gaps in public understanding of sunscreen labels such as high uncertainty about physical and chemical sunscreens and UVA/UVB protection. We have responded to these results by making this information available on our reflections wiki page. Our results indicate that factors such as age and experience with skin cancer might not be good predictors of a person’s sunscreen habits. This has allowed us to better understand consumers and opens up a variety of marketing techniques. Our results also support the conclusions made in our YouTube analysis because only generation Z had any cases of daily use of sunscreen, this suggests that the behaviour seen on YouTube is slowly rising among young individuals. Overall, this survey has helped us understand how different people use sunscreen meaning we can visualise the different ways our product will be used - most likely our product will be used during high UV periods yet the average sales and SPF level will vary depending on the climate of the country. Therefore, these results have helped us define the implementation of our project.
Sun Score Point Allocation
Does your sunscreen provide protection from UVA and UVB?
- Yes = +1
- No = -1
- I don’t know = 0
In this question points are rewarded for using broad-spectrum sunscreens.
If you do sunbathe are you wearing sunscreen?
- Always = +3
- Usually = +2
- Sometimes = +1
- Rarely = 0
- Never = -1
Points are rewarded or deducted depending on whether the individual uses sunscreen in high UV situations such as sunbathing. This question resolves issues raised by arguments over whether it is appropriate to wear sunscreen everyday. The general scientific consensus is that during high UV exposure sunscreen should be worn.
How often do you reapply sunscreen?
- Every 2-3 hours = +2
- Every hour = +1
- Only after water exposure = 0
- Only when i begin to burn = -1
- I do not reapply my sunscreen = -2
Points are rewarded for appropriate sunscreen reapplication, reapplication every hour was considered worth less points than every 2-3 hours because thick sunscreen use can contribute to vitamin D deficiency - click here to view interview with an expert dermatologist
Where do you apply sunscreen? Each body part listed is worth +1, for sunscreen to be effective there must be complete application across the body.
How much sunscreen do you typically apply?
- A tablespoon = +3
- A palmful +2
- A quick dab or spray = +1
- I don’t know = 0
- I do not wear sunscreen = -1
In this question points are rewarded for how close their respondents answers are to the recommended amount.
When exposed to the sun without adequate protection do you feel guilty?
- Yes always = +2
- Some time = +1
- Rarely = 0
- No = -1
Points are rewarded for having an understanding that in high UV situations sunscreen should be used.
When around others using sunscreen do you feel encouraged to use it?
- Yes = +2
- No = -1
- Depends on who they are = +1
- I don’t know = 0
Points are rewarded for recognising that sunscreen has benefits and that respondents should be using it. This question is based off social science research that claimed sunscreen use is best predicted by examining interpersonal relationships (Mosher & Danoff-Burg, 2005).
If others are not using sunscreen does this make you less likely to use sunscreen?
- Yes = -2
- No = +2
- Depends who they are = -1
- I don’t know = 0
