All or nothing... or just a hat? Farmers' sun protection behaviors.

Farmers have an increased risk for developing skin cancers and thus comprise an important audience for messages that address sun protection practices. This project examines sun protection behaviors of farmers from southeastern Georgia and uses those measured behaviors to conduct a cluster analysis. Farmers (N = 480) were clustered into three groups using six variables that measured their frequency of sun protective and purchasing behaviors. The three groups were characterized as either engaging heavily in sun protective behaviors, engaging in none of the recommended sun protective behaviors, or only wearing hats as a sun protective behavior. Practitioners seeking to develop health message interventions that target farming populations should consider the current behaviors of subgroups of farmers when developing audience segments to tailor messages aimed at increasing sun protective behaviors. Practical recommendations for message content targeted toward the subgroups of farmers are provided.