Impact of climate change on non-communicable diseases caused by altered UV radiation.

Background: UV radiation can cause serious skin and eye diseases, especially cancers. UV-related skin cancer incidences have been increasing for decades. The determining factor for this development is the individual UV exposure.

Randomised controlled trial to evaluate the influence of mHealth and eHealth skin cancer prevention education among young organ transplant recipients: the HIPPOlino intervention study.

Objectives: To determine whether a multicomponent sun protection intervention programme (mHealth) for young organ transplant recipients (OTR) leads to a higher increase of preventive knowledge and behavioural change than an e-learning education programme (eHealth).

Design: Randomised controlled trial with one preintervention baseline survey and three follow-up surveys after 6 weeks, 6 and 12 months. Comparison of two different intervention schedules with a control group (CG).

Face-to-face Sun Protection Training and Text Messages Improve Sun Protection Behaviour in Adolescent Organ Transplant Recipients: HIPPOlino Feasibility Study.

Adolescent organ transplant recipients have an increased risk of developing skin cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the technical feasibility and acceptability of short messaging service-based sun protection recommendations for adolescent patients. Sun-protective knowledge and behaviour were also evaluated using standardized questionnaires and telephone interviews.

Validation of the Fiala multi-node thermophysiological model for UTCI application.

The important requirement that COST Action 730 demanded of the physiological model to be used for the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) was its capability of accurate simulation of human thermophysiological responses across a wide range of relevant environmental conditions, such as conditions corresponding to the selection of all habitable climates and their seasonal changes, and transient conditions representing the temporal variation of outdoor conditions. In the first part of this study, available heat budget/two-node models and multi-node thermophysiological models were evaluated by direct comparison over a wide spectrum of climatic conditions. The UTCI-Fiala model predicted most reliably the average human thermal response, as shown by least deviations from physiologically plausible responses when compared to other models.

The perceived temperature - a versatile index for the assessment of the human thermal environment. Part A: scientific basics.

The Perceived Temperature (PT) is an equivalent temperature based on a complete heat budget model of the human body. It has proved its suitability for numerous applications across a wide variety of scales from micro to global and is successfully used both in daily forecasts and climatological studies. PT is designed for staying outdoors and is defined as the air temperature of a reference environment in which the thermal perception would be the same as in the actual environment.

UV index forecasts and measurements of health-effective radiation.

While erythemal irradiance as a potentially damaging effect to the skin has been extensively studied and short-term forecasts have been issued to the public to reduce detrimental immediate and long-term effects such as sunburn and skin cancer by overexposure, beneficial effects to human health such as vitamin D(3) production by UV radiation and melatonin suppression by blue visible light have attained more and more attention, though both of them have not become part of forecasting yet. Using 4years of solar radiation data measured at the mid-latitude site Lindenberg (52°N), and forecast daily maximum UV index values, an overall good correspondence has been found. The data base of solar UV radiation and illuminance has also been used to analyze effects of clouds and aerosols on the effective irradiance.