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Text Messages Might Increase Sunscreen Usage

FRIDAY, Nov. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Sunscreen can help reduce the risk of skin cancer, but people forget to apply it. Now, researchers say, daily text-message reminders could increase usage.

Researchers from the University of California-Davis Health System, in Sacramento, recruited 70 adults and randomly assigned half of them to get text messages that included information about local weather and a reminder to wear sunscreen. The others didn't receive the messages.

The researchers used electronic monitoring to track who used sunscreen; the tubes of sunscreen had been equipped with devices that sent messages when they were opened.

During the next six weeks, people who didn't receive text messages used sunscreen 30 percent of the days, compared with 56 percent for the group that received the messages.