Last year, John A. Rogers Group at Northwestern University, known for their study of wearable sensors, conducted different research to find out how an alarm from a UV measurement sensor can impact the behavior of skin-cancer survivors. According to this research, skin-cancer survivors knew that they have to reduce their UV exposure but wanted to enjoy their time outside as they had done before cancer. It was difficult to follow common sun safety tips, for example not going outside between 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (27% of skin-cancer survivors in the U.S. experienced sunburn.)

UV sensors have not been used in UV protection education. There is a technology that transmits data from the UV sensor to a smartphone application, but only a few studied how this technology can change the behavior of users for their UV protection. The purpose of this study was to observe short-term changes in UV exposure among skin cancer survivors wearing the UV sensor providing real-time UV exposure information and daily text messages through the app. The results showed that the UV sensor increased the awareness of UV exposure and the participants favored using the UV sensor for better outdoor activities.

Participants attached the sensor to their watch for monitoring and they preferred to get real-time UV measurements through the sensor, rather than getting accumulated data at the end of day. They checked their UV exposure in real time and changed their UV protection behavior to reduce exposure, at least down to the maximum permissible exposure time. For example, some participants tried to finish their gardening before 10 a.m. and other participants avoided walking with their dogs around noon. They said that they were able to enjoy their time outside with friends and family from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. thanks to real-time data from the UV sensor. What's more interesting is that the participants who set the structured goal reported sustained reduction of their UV exposure compared to those who did not set a goal.

In this study, participants received structured goal-setting queries via text message and were asked to set their goals by using “I” statements. They had this goal-setting activity on day 10. One group had structured goals and the other group had rather unstructured goals. The structured goals and number of participants in each of the goal-achieving strategies are given below (in descending order):

Other participants (13) set unstructured goals and gave a free text description of their own strategies without using “I” statements, as shown below:

They had similar strategies as the structured group but failed to reduce UV exposure and went back to their old lifestyle. In short, not only data from the sensor, but also daily text messages and structured goal setting were needed to change the sun protection behavior of the participants. It is said that the participants wanted intervention in all three ways: UV sensor and app, daily text message, and structured goal setting.

The study above shows that personalized text messages using the data of an individual, for example, characteristics, mood, and environment, together with structured goal setting effectively helped maintain behavioral change. It occurs to me that if we can use this kind of tool to turn our knowledge into action, it will allow us to stay true to ourselves and the decisions we make so that we can enjoy our lives without worries or fears. That's why we will continue in our efforts to upgrade and provide sensor technology and its applications to help emotionally and physically struggling people make decisions for themselves and improve the quality of their life.