Please note: This website has recently moved from www.health.gov to odphp.health.gov. www.health.gov is now the official website of ODPHP’s parent organization, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH). Please update your bookmarks for easy access to all our resources. 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Reduce the proportion of students in grades 9 through 12 who report sunburn — C‑10 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About the National Data  |  Methodology  |  History

About the National Data

Data

Data Source:  Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), CDC/NCCDPHP

Baseline: 57.2 percent of students in grades 9 through 12 reported sunburn in the past 12 months in 2017

Target: 52.2 percent

Numerator
Number of students in grades 9 through 12 who responded that they had one or more sunburns during the past 12 months.
Denominator
Number of students in grades 9 through 12.
Target-setting method
Percentage point improvement
Target-setting method details
Percentage point improvement from the baseline using Cohen's h effect size of 0.10.
1
Target-setting method justification
Trend data were not available for this objective. A percentage point improvement was calculated using Cohen's h effect size of 0.1. This method was used because the Healthy People 2030 Workgroup Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) took into consideration the stakeholder coalitions located throughout the country that have contributed to cancer control plans to help lower the number of people affected by cancer. Most cancer control plans include priorities related to skin cancer prevention. Therefore, the SMEs viewed the target as ambitious yet achievable.

Methodology

Questions used to obtain the national baseline data

(For additional information, please visit the data source page linked above.)

From the 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System:

During the past 12 months, how many times have you had a sunburn? (Count the number of times even a small part of your skin turned red or hurt for 12 hours or more after being outside in the sun or after using a sunlamp or other indoor tanning device.)
Numerator:
  1. 0 times
  2. 1 time
  3. 2 times
  4. 3 times
  5. 4 times
  6. 5 or more times

Methodology notes

Data include adolescents who reported a sunburn one or more times in the past 12 months.

History

Comparable HP2020 objective
Retained, which includes core objectives that are continuing from Healthy People 2020 with no change in measurement.
Revision History
Revised. 

In 2024, the baseline race/ethnicity data were revised at the request of the data provider.

1. Effect size h=0.1 was chosen to correspond with 10% improvement from a baseline of 50%.