A systematic review of educational interventions for promoting sun protection knowledge, attitudes and behaviour following the QUESTS approach.

A literature review was performed to identify studies of educational interventions to promote sun protection behaviour. Fifty-nine clinical trials were identified. These studies were assessed using the QUESTS model. The studies showed that a wide range of educational interventions in different settings with a variety of target groups can be effective in promoting sun protection knowledge, attitudes, intended and actual behaviour. Relatively few studies made direct comparisons between different educational interventions. Therefore there was little evidence to suggest that any one form of intervention was more effective than any other. This review shows that the QUESTS criteria can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of patient education in the same way they are used to assess evidence in medical education. Performing systematic reviews on patient education topics should prove useful for health professionals developing educational interventions.