# Pilot mobile-wearable just-in-time adaptive intervention (JITAI) for sun safety among children

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · 2020 · $204,116

## Abstract

Project Summary
Childhood is a critical period for primary prevention for unhealthful behaviors associated with many diseases
later in life. Existing prevention interventions for children, however, rarely incorporate approaches that tailor
intervention strategies to disease-specific risk factors. In the prevention of skin cancer, targeting
interventions to children is critical as children who incur higher UV exposures are at greater risk of
developing skin cancer as adults and sun safety practices learned at young age tend to become lifelong habits.
Available skin cancer interventions for children have not been tailored to individual risk factors. Prevention can
greatly reduce associated morbidity and mortality for patients and economic burden to the health care
system. Sun exposure is an established environmental cause of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer,
and both are preventable by reducing exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation achieved through sun protective
behaviors. Individually-tailored intervention strategies that can lead to improving and maintaining sun
protective behaviors have not been tested among children. Thus, we aim to develop and pilot test a novel
method of mobile and wearable technologies, just-in-time adaptive intervention (JITAI) tailored to children’s
individual and real-time risk factors, focusing on skin cancer prevention. In the proposed study, we will 1)
develop a prototype of mobile and wearable JITAI, tailored to children’s individual risk factors via co-design
process involving children and parents; 2) pilot test usability and feasibility of the prototype JITAI among
target users; 3) incorporate intensive longitudinal, self-report sun protection behavior measures and
automatically collected environmental sensor data; and 4) collect preliminary data for protocols (engagement
strategies, frequency and length) of UV-exposure triggered, context-sensitive, JITAI most feasible for
school-aged children. The proposed intervention strategy will enable us to build a platform for a cost-effective,
highly scalable approach, receptive to children users that allow for assessment of their own behaviors and
environment in real time. The proposed methods are demonstrative and could be applied to a wide variety of
other environmental exposures and related health behavior outcomes.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9928440
- **Project number:** 5R21ES029570-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Jimi Huh
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $204,116
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-05-15 → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9928440

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9928440, Pilot mobile-wearable just-in-time adaptive intervention (JITAI) for sun safety among children (5R21ES029570-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9928440. Licensed CC0.

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