Cosmetology Students and Skin Cancer

Assess the efficacy of training cosmetology students to detect suspicious skin lesions.

The incidence of melanoma is increasing the USA. The early detection of skin cancer is associated with a significant decrease in morbidity and mortality. Hair professionals (cosmetologists and barbers) have an excellent opportunity to detect suspicious skin lesions on the scalp, neck, and face due to routinely looking at this area during customer visits. Currently in Arkansas, cosmetology schools teach students about how to recognize skin cancer on their clients. In this program, the aim was to improve the educational module for skin cancer in schools of cosmetology in Arkansas. In the proposed study, the intervention training module was designed to increase the knowledge of cosmetology schools students about skin cancer will be evaluated. It was hypothesized that this educational video will educate cosmetology students and cosmetologists about how to prevent skin cancer, how to recognize a suspicious spot or mole which may be a skin cancer, and how to talk with clients about seeing a dermatologist when a suspicious spot is found. This study was a cluster-randomized controlled trial in cosmetology schools in Arkansas. The institutional review board for human subjects at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences determined that this study was approved as exempt and submission was not required since it was an educational intervention to improve the quality of an educational component of the existing curriculum.