Validation of SEPI in German—A German Translation of the Sun Exposure and Protection Index

Elias Karlsson, Inga-Marie Hübner, Daniela Haluza and Magnus Falk
Additional contact information
Elias Karlsson: Department of Medicine, Health and Caring Sciences, Linköping University, SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden
Inga-Marie Hübner: Association of Dermatological Prevention [ADP], 20457 Hamburg, Germany
Daniela Haluza: Department of Environmental Health, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
Magnus Falk: Department of Medicine, Health and Caring Sciences, Linköping University, SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 17, 1-9

Abstract: The Sun Exposure and Protection Index (SEPI) is a brief instrument for scoring of sun exposure habits and propensity to increase sun protection, previously validated in English and in Swedish, as well as in two different outdoor sun intensity environments (Australia and Northern Europe). The aim of the present study was to study reliability and validity of a German translated version of the SEPI to be used in German-speaking populations. Data was collected at University of Flensburg and at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences from November 2018 to April 2019. Participants (n = 205) filled out the SEPI and also a selection of corresponding questions from the Austrian Vienna UV Questionnaire in German. After three weeks, the participants filled out the SEPI once again in order to assess test–retest stability. Of the 205 participants completing the baseline questionnaire, 135 participants completed it once again after three weeks. Internal consistency, by Cronbach’s alpha, for the baseline responses was 0.70 (95% C.I: 0.63–0.76) for SEPI part 1 (sun exposure habits) and 0.72 (95% C.I: 0.66–0.78) for part 2 (propensity to increase sun protection). Test–retest stability was high, with weighted Kappa >0.6 for all items but one, and the instrument correlated well with the previously validated German-language UV Skin Risk Survey Questionnaire. In conclusion, the German version of SEPI can reliably be used for mapping of individual sun exposure patterns.

Keywords: sunlight; ultraviolet radiation; skin cancer; questionnaire; prevention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/17/6172/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/17/6172/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:17:p:6172-:d:403886

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().