The role of social media message design and audience demographics in promoting sunscreen use to prevent skin cancer: An online randomized controlled experiment.

Objectives: Skin cancer represents a significant public health concern, and consistent sunscreen use reduces risk. With social media emerging as a dominant source of health information, unconventional video formats have gained increased prominence. Despite these shifts in health promotion practice, limited research has examined how digital message formats influence health-related beliefs. The objective of this study is to examine how different social media-based message formats (amateur video, professional video, written text, and control) and participant characteristics affect perceptions of skin cancer risk, sunscreen efficacy, and intentions to wear sunscreen to prevent skin cancer. Methods: A national sample of white US adults ( Results: Both amateur and professionally produced video formats significantly increased participants' beliefs in sunscreen's effectiveness compared to the control condition. The only significant audience perception differences were higher engagement and lower boredom ratings in the professional video condition compared to the amateur video and text-only conditions. Demographic variables including sex, generation, skin sensitivity, and education were significantly associated with differences in perceived threat and efficacy. Conclusion: Findings indicate that both amateur and professional video-based social media messages can effectively promote sun safety. Public health campaigns aiming to reduce skin cancer risk may be strengthened by incorporating varied digital message formats and tailoring content to key demographic characteristics of the target audience.