Objective:

To determine the sun protection knowledge and habits among street vendors of the Moshoqueque market (Chiclayo, Lambayeque) in January and February 2020.

Materials and methods:

A descriptive and cross-sectional study. A data collection sheet was prepared. The sample consisted of 362 street vendors. A 95 % confidence interval, 5 % accuracy and 50 % of the expected frequency were applied.

Results:

The average age of the study subjects was 48.54 (SD = 11.6 years) and most of them were women (61 %). The median time as street vendors was 15 years. Ninety-two point five percent (92.5 %) were exposed to the sun 7.6 hours per day. Regarding sun protection knowledge, more than 90 % were aware that skin redness and aging are effects of ultraviolet radiation (UVR). As for their sun protection habits, 34 % never used sunscreen, 90 % did not wear wide-brimmed hats, but they used visors and umbrellas.

Conclusions

Vendors know that redness and aging are the result of UVR. However, they do not know that headache is not caused by UVR and that after sun burning it is still necessary to use sunscreen. As for their sun protection habits, they never use sunscreen; they wear a visor or a hat (but not wide-brimmed hats). They have worked around 7.6 hours a day for more than a decade.

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