Using Technology to Scale-Up an Occupational Sun Protection Policy Program

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A key goal in the Affordable Care Act is building a national culture of prevention through workplace health and safety initiatives. To achieve this goal, methods for scaling up evidence-based programs from research to wide- scale dissemination are needed to help balance effectiveness and cost. In many cases, there are pressures to reduce scale-up costs but at the expense of lower program implementation and effectiveness. A scale-up method that sacrifices effectiveness but reduces costs and reaches a larger number of employers may be acceptable. We will model the effectiveness and cost trade-off, along with the extent and representativeness of reach, when scaling up our evidence-based occupational sun protection intervention, Sun Safe Workplaces (SSW), for national distribution. The intervention, which relies on personal contact with managers and in- person employee training (SSW-IP), created large improvements in comprehensive workplace sun safety (i.e., policy adoption and employee education) in a randomized controlled trial. We will compare the existing in- person program delivery methods (SSW-IP) to a lower-cost dissemination method that utilizes Internet technology (SSW-T), i.e., virtual meetings, social networking, online training, and program materials. The aims of the research are to: 1) estimate the program reach (number and representativeness) and implementation rates (i.e., adoption of policies and delivery of education on occupational sun protection) achieved by the SSW- IP and SSW-T in a model of national distribution to public safety and public works industries; 2) estimate the costs associated with the SSW-IP and SSW-T (i.e., intervention costs and induced employer costs) and compare the estimated program benefits (i.e., policy and education) to cost; and 3) estimate the effect and cost- effectiveness of SSW-IP and SSW-T in secondary outcomes of a) changes in workplace environments and procedures for sun safety and b) workers’ sun safety practices. In a 5-year project, SSW-T will be created by redesigning our very effective SSW-IP methods to use the latest web conferencing, social networking, and online training technology for dissemination. The implementation rates (defined as policy adoption and education delivery) and costs associated with SSW-IP (n=50 employers) and SSW-T (n=150 employers) will be modeled in a randomized two-group pretest-posttest design, enrolling a national sample of 200 employers (i.e., firefighting departments and state departments of transportation). Unlike traditional randomized trials, the primary analysis will be of cost effectiveness to test the hypothesis that SSW-T can be delivered cost-effectively to an expanded group of worksites producing a lower implementation rate than SSW-IP but at substantially lower cost. Secondary analyses will compare the two scale-up strategies on implementation rate, differences in rate by employer groups (e.g., size and region), changes to workplace environment/procedures, and employee sun safety practices. The findings will have high impact by helping public health practitioners select the best strategy for scaling up evidence-based workplace health and safety programs to achieve this ACA goal.