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Writing / Irene Vega
Skin cancer is currently an expanding global epidemic with a major impact on health services, according to the WHO. In addition, it is the second most prevalent factor of mortality in industrialized countries and is spreading among the young population, making melanoma the most common cancer among adults under thirty years of age and the second most frequent type of cancer among adolescents and young people. . Most of the affected population could have received damage from excessive exposure to UV rays in their adolescence and early youth, and research in various countries points to the population of university students as a risk group.
Ángeles Moreno, main researcher of the project, affirms that "in order to reduce the risk of this sector of the population, an updated survey of their attitudes and behaviors towards photoprevention is necessary, as well as towards communication on social networks, which are today its main means of information.
This project will give rise to the first multidisciplinary international study that jointly analyzes the knowledge, attitudes and habits of the population, as well as the strategic evaluation of communication campaigns on photoprevention of skin cancer. In this sense, the project is an international pioneer in bringing together a multidisciplinary team of Communication Sciences and Health Sciences to approach the object of study, integrating researchers specialized in dermatology, oncology, psychiatry, strategic communication, media discourse analysis, communication in social networks and in gender perspectives. "It also constitutes the first scientific work that would produce specific results of prevention communication on skin cancer with a direct transfer of results to health entities, foundations and associations, which are the main actors of the associative social fabric in Spain", points out the URJC researcher.
The novelty of this project also lies in the fact that it will be the first in Spain on strategic communication based on the effectiveness of real skin cancer prevention communication campaigns and speeches on photoprotection on social networks, focusing especially on the population at risk identified. in previous studies: university students.
Finally, for the first time at an international level, this project will allow the introduction of gender approaches (beyond the sample division by sex) and its relationship with the reception of solar photoprevention communication.
Knowledge transfer for greater awareness
The project is directed by Ángeles Moreno, internationally recognized researcher of the Advanced Communication Studies Group of the Rey Juan Carlos University and current president of the European Public Relations and Research Association. The research team combines various medical and communication specialties with the participation of five institutions. The team is made up of Enric Saperas Lapiedra, Maria Luisa Humanes and Cristina Fuentes (Rey Juan Carlos University), Ainara Soria (Ramón y Cajal Hospital), Magdalena de Troya and Nuria Blázquez (Costa del Sol Hospital and Soludable project), Alejandro Alberto García (Complexo University Hospital of Ourense) and Iván Puentes (University of La Coruña).
The essential objective of this project is the transmission of knowledge to associations and institutions so that, through their prevention communication campaigns, they can generate greater awareness among the university population at risk, contributing to curbing the advance of the cancer epidemic in Spain. That is why this project aims to establish guides for the transfer of knowledge to the main issuers of strategic photoprevention communication in Spain.
Collaborators and direct beneficiaries of the results of the project will be the Spanish Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, the Spanish Association Against Cancer and the AECC Scientific Foundation, the Spanish Multidisciplinary Melanoma Group (GEM), Melanoma Spain, Costa del Sol Hospital, Soludable and Ramón y Cajal Hospital. Also collaborating is Marisol Sonegas, leader of the Melanoma Group of the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO), PhD Award from the Severo Ochoa Center for Molecular Biology, Life Science Biomedical Scholar Award, Diana Ashby Young Investigator Award, Career Development Awards and M. Josefa Wonenburger Award.