Built shade can be a good public investment because it requires less pre-planning than other personal sun protection practices, such as clothing and sunscreen. This project conducted a stratified randomized pretest-posttest study of the observed use of shade sails in 144 public parks in Melbourne, Australia and Denver, Colorado in 2010 to 2014. The building of shade sails increased observed use under their shaded areas compared to use of areas of parks with no shade sails. Shade sails increased use in Denver more than in Melbourne, perhaps due to their relative novelty in Denver.
CBRC staff
Dr Suzanne Dobbinson, Jody Simmons, Prof Melanie Wakefield
Collaborators
Dr David Buller and Dr Mary Buller (Klein Buendel, Denver USA), Prof Dallas English (The University of Melbourne) and Dr James Chamberlain (Cancer Epidemiology Division, Cancer Council Victoria)
Funding
US National Cancer Institute, Cancer Council Victoria
Years
2010 - present
