Hajj Insights: Qualitative Research on Sun Protection

According to the PLOS One study on Hajj sun protection, pilgrims and nurses recognized sun exposure as a problem but often understood it primarily as heat rather than as a separate ultraviolet radiation risk. The study shows why qualitative research on sun protection must examine beliefs, language, product access, clothing norms, and lived experience alongside stated awareness.

• The PLOS One study interviewed 29 people between June 20 and July 11, 2025, including 16 Saudi pilgrims and 13 registered nurses who had worked during Hajj.
• The PLOS One study identified five themes: physical and emotional effects, limited awareness, cultural influences, barriers to protection, and recommendations for improvement.
• The PLOS One study reported that UPF-rated products and the UV Index were poorly understood, while participants more readily discussed dehydration, exhaustion, dizziness, and fainting.
• The PLOS One study found that cost, availability, language differences, product discomfort, cultural clothing norms, and spiritual interpretations of hardship could limit sun-protection behavior.
• The PLOS One study recommended structured education before and during Hajj, multilingual communication, affordable protective products, and messages that distinguish heat-related illness from UV-related harm.

The PLOS One study used a qualitative descriptive design and retrospective semi-structured interviews conducted through Zoom from June 20 to July 11, 2025, approximately one month after the 2025 Hajj season. The researchers analyzed the interviews thematically using Braun and Clarke's six-phase approach and used Lincoln and Guba's criteria to address qualitative trustworthiness.

The PLOS One study included 16 Saudi pilgrims and 13 registered nurses, for a total sample of 29 participants. The researchers assessed saturation separately for pilgrims and nurses and reported that the final two to three interviews in each group produced no new codes.

The PLOS One study found that participants often described sun exposure through heat-related symptoms rather than UV-specific effects. One pilgrim said, "The weather was hot, and, unfortunately, the sun was directly overhead... We felt tired and exhausted you feel like you can’t continue the remaining steps."

The PLOS One study also found substantial gaps in specialized knowledge. One nurse said, "Honestly, I have no knowledge about UV-protection products, " while another participant described UPF as something they had encountered for the first time.

The PLOS One study reported that some participants viewed enduring heat as part of the spiritual challenge of Hajj, while other participants described umbrella use as increasingly accepted. The researchers therefore presented culture as a changing influence on behavior rather than as a fixed barrier.

The PLOS One study suggests that public health teams should separate heat-prevention messages from UV-protection messages. Hydration, rest, and cooling address heat-related illness, while sunscreen and UPF-rated clothing or umbrellas address UV exposure; shade can contribute to protection from both risks.

The PLOS One study indicates that information availability alone is not enough to change behavior. Researchers should investigate whether participants understand technical terms such as UPF and the UV Index, whether products are affordable and easy to find, and whether protective actions fit cultural clothing requirements and religious expectations.

The PLOS One study also makes a case for segmenting qualitative findings. Pilgrims emphasized practical issues such as forgetting umbrellas, product cost, and discomfort, while nurses emphasized multilingual communication, limited training, and institutional preparedness. Cross-segment analysis can preserve these differences instead of collapsing them into a single theme such as lack of awareness.

For health researchers, the study offers a practical qualitative workflow: transcribe interviews accurately, preserve the original language and translated meaning, code inductively, compare groups, document saturation decisions, and connect recommendations to participant evidence. The PLOS One study used Arabic interviews for Saudi participants, English for one non-Saudi nurse, bilingual translation, and an audit of 20% of translated transcripts.

Because the study concerns health behavior rather than individual diagnosis, researchers should treat its findings as non-diagnostic, context-specific evidence for public health planning.

The November 2026 PLOS One study shows that qualitative research on sun protection can uncover barriers that a knowledge survey may miss, including spiritual interpretations, clothing constraints, product discomfort, language differences, and mistaken assumptions about UV protection.

The study's 29 interviews and five themes also demonstrate the value of comparing participant groups rather than treating awareness as a single variable. AI-enabled qualitative analysis can help researchers manage this complexity by accelerating transcript review, thematic coding, cross-segment comparison, and evidence retrieval.

Researchers should use AI as an analytical support layer, preserve human judgment, and validate important interpretations against original-language data and participant context. Try Evidano for free to analyze interviews, documents, and open-ended responses with AI-powered qualitative research tools.