Portable shade structure use high for soccer-playing youth

(HealthDay)—The rate of use of commercially available portable shade structures is high among soccer-playing youths, according to a research letter published online July 30 in JAMA Dermatology.

Sheila Krishna, M.D., from the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System in Richmond, and colleagues examined the rate of use of portable shade structures among soccer-playing youths. Data were collected from a summer soccer camp in metropolitan Richmond that included 15 three-hour periods of play, of which eight periods were observed. The mean number of children under the shade structure was calculated per rest period for 78 rest sessions observed on seven days.

The researchers found that a mean of 80.9 children were observed during each session. Across all rest sessions, a mean of 71.4 percent used the shade structures. Temperature was not associated with shade structure use (P = 0.19). Differences in shade use were seen by camper group, with older campers who attended the afternoon sessions less likely to use shade structures than younger campers who attended the morning sessions (51.2 versus 76.6 percent; P = 0.02). Differences in shade use were seen in the first and second week (98 and 66 percent, respectively; P = 0.01), which correlated with differences in cloud coverage. After adjustment for camper group and week, a mean of 79.7 percent of children used the shade structures per rest session.

"Larger, multicenter studies are needed to confirm the utility of shade structures to decrease ultraviolet exposure in a meaningful way and to inform policy makers, recreation facility managers, and architects of the public health value of shade structures for open field sports activities," the authors write.