Health researchers and public health teams need to understand why people do or do not adopt protective behaviors, not only measure whether they adopted them. Qualitative sun protection research can reveal how knowledge, cultural beliefs, product access, language, and daily constraints shape behavior. A peer-reviewed study published by PLOS One on November 11, 2026 examined these questions through post-Hajj interviews with pilgrims and nurses. This article summarizes the study’s findings and explains how AI-enabled qualitative research can help teams analyze multilingual interviews, identify themes, and compare participant groups without losing important context.
Key Takeaways
According to the PLOS One study on sun protection during Hajj, qualitative interviews conducted after the 2025 Hajj found that participants recognized sun exposure as a serious challenge but often understood it primarily as a heat problem rather than a separate ultraviolet radiation risk. The study identified five themes that can guide culturally appropriate health education and product-access interventions.
- According to the PLOS One study published on November 11, 2026, researchers interviewed 29 people: 16 Saudi pilgrims and 13 registered nurses.
- According to the study, interviews took place through Zoom from June 20 to July 11, 2025, within approximately one month of the 2025 Hajj season.
- According to the researchers, five themes emerged: physical and emotional effects, awareness gaps, cultural influences, barriers to protection, and recommendations for improvement.
- According to the PLOS One findings, participants had limited understanding of ultraviolet protection factor, or UPF, products, the UV Index, and the difference between ordinary and UV-rated protective items.
- According to the study, participants recommended structured education before Hajj, multilingual communication, affordable protective products, and culturally appropriate clothing.
How This Qualitative Sun Protection Research Worked
The PLOS One study used a qualitative descriptive design with retrospective, semi-structured interviews to explore awareness, attitudes, and behaviors related to sunscreen, UPF-rated clothing, umbrellas, and other protective measures.
According to Qaladi and colleagues, the sample included 16 Saudi pilgrims and 13 registered nurses who had worked in hospitals in Makkah and Madinah during the 2025 Hajj. The research team assessed saturation separately for each participant group and reported reaching it after 16 pilgrim interviews and 13 nurse interviews.
According to the study’s methods section, interviews lasted approximately 30 to 45 minutes, were conducted in Arabic except for one nurse interview in English, and were translated into English when necessary. A second bilingual researcher audited a random 20% of translated transcripts against the original Arabic material.
According to the PLOS One researchers, three researchers independently coded an initial 20% of the transcripts, resolved coding differences through discussion, and used Braun and Clarke’s six-phase approach to thematic analysis.
The study has important boundaries. According to the authors, the research included Saudi pilgrims from one Hajj season, relied on recalled experiences rather than direct observation, and may not represent the wider international pilgrim population.
Hajj Sun Protection Research: Findings Snapshot
| Date or measure | Finding | Value | Implication |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 20 to July 11, 2025 | Interview period | 29 interviews | The research captured recalled experiences within approximately one month of Hajj. |
| 2025 Hajj season | Participant groups | 16 pilgrims and 13 nurses | The design compared personal experiences with professional observations. |
| November 11, 2026 | Major themes identified | 5 themes | The findings connect knowledge, culture, access, communication, and intervention design. |
| 2025 Hajj season | Translation quality check | 20% of translated transcripts audited | The study used an additional bilingual review to check conceptual and semantic equivalence. |
| 2025 Hajj season | Previous related evidence cited by the study | 26.9% of pilgrims did not use umbrellas in direct sunlight | The cited evidence indicates a measurable gap between exposure to sunlight and protective behavior. |
Implications for Health Researchers and Public Health Teams
Qualitative sun protection research shows that effective health messaging must distinguish heat-related illness from ultraviolet-related harm. According to the PLOS One study, participants commonly described exhaustion, dizziness, dehydration, and fainting, while UV-specific effects such as sunburn and eye irritation were mentioned less often.
The study indicates that knowledge alone is not enough to explain behavior. According to the PLOS One researchers, participants also described spiritual interpretations of hardship, language differences, product cost, limited availability, discomfort, forgetting protective items, and clothing constraints.
The study’s findings suggest that public health teams should segment qualitative data by participant role, language, gender, cultural context, and exposure to health education. Nurses emphasized systemic and communication barriers, while pilgrims more often emphasized comfort, cost, access, and forgetting items.
Direct participant language helps intervention designers understand how a message may be received. One pilgrim told the researchers, “Everyone knows the sun is harmful, but I don’t think we understand how exactly.” A nurse described the communication challenge as, “The biggest challenge is language.”
For medical and public health applications, qualitative findings should support research and program design rather than diagnosis or individualized medical advice.
How Evidano Helps With AI-Enabled Qualitative Research
Problem: Researchers must synthesize many interview transcripts
Evidano is an AI-powered qualitative data analysis platform that helps researchers analyze interviews, open-ended surveys, and documents.
Evidano can support thematic, content, frequency, and cross-segment analyses, helping research teams move from raw interview material to an organized view of recurring themes and differences between pilgrims, nurses, languages, or demographic groups.
Teams can review the platform’s qualitative research features when designing an interview-analysis workflow.
Problem: Multilingual interviews can complicate comparison
The PLOS One study conducted interviews in Arabic and English and used bilingual review to protect meaning during translation.
Evidano supports transcription and translation workflows with custom dictionaries, which can help researchers standardize recurring terminology before comparing multilingual responses. Human researchers should still review translations and culturally sensitive interpretations.
Problem: Important differences can disappear inside one overall theme
The PLOS One findings show why cross-segment analysis matters: nurses and pilgrims identified overlapping concerns but emphasized different barriers.
Evidano can compare themes and coded responses across selected segments, helping teams examine whether a barrier is shared broadly or concentrated among a particular participant group.
Problem: Researchers need to interrogate evidence after coding
Evidano provides AI chat over uploaded documents and analyses, allowing researchers to ask follow-up questions about themes, supporting passages, and segment differences.
Researchers can use the chat experience to test interpretations, locate relevant excerpts, and prepare focused questions for human review instead of relying only on a single automated summary.
FAQ: Qualitative Sun Protection Research
What did the Hajj qualitative sun protection study find?
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The Hajj qualitative sun protection study found five major themes: physical and emotional effects of sun exposure, limited awareness, cultural influences, practical barriers, and recommendations for improvement.
According to the PLOS One study published on November 11, 2026, participants often understood sun exposure as a heat risk but had less knowledge of UV radiation, UPF-rated products, and the UV Index.
How many people participated in the Hajj interview study?
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The study included 29 participants: 16 Saudi pilgrims and 13 registered nurses.
According to the PLOS One methods section, interviews were conducted from June 20 to July 11, 2025, and saturation was assessed separately for the two participant groups.
Why is thematic analysis useful for sun protection research?
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Thematic analysis is useful because it identifies recurring patterns in participants’ experiences, beliefs, language, and reported behaviors.
In the Hajj study, thematic analysis connected knowledge gaps with cultural beliefs, product access, communication barriers, and recommendations for intervention.
How can AI help analyze qualitative healthcare interviews?
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AI can help healthcare researchers organize transcripts, identify candidate themes, compare participant segments, and retrieve supporting excerpts more efficiently.
AI does not replace methodological judgment, reflexivity, ethical review, or human interpretation, especially when interviews involve translation, religion, health, or culturally sensitive topics.
Can Evidano analyze multilingual qualitative research data?
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Evidano can support multilingual qualitative workflows through transcription and translation features with custom dictionaries.
Researchers should review translated excerpts and AI-generated themes for semantic accuracy, cultural context, and consistency with the study protocol.
Conclusion and Next Steps
The 2025 Hajj interviews show how qualitative sun protection research can uncover barriers that standard awareness measures may miss, including spiritual interpretations, language differences, product access, discomfort, and culturally specific clothing requirements.
The PLOS One study’s 29 interviews and five themes provide a focused example of how qualitative evidence can guide public health education and intervention design. AI-enabled analysis can help research teams process similar interview, survey, and document collections while keeping segment comparisons and source excerpts visible.
Researchers can use Evidano to accelerate thematic synthesis while preserving human oversight over interpretation, translation, and ethical decisions. Try Evidano for free and explore an AI-assisted workflow for qualitative research.
Topics
- qualitative sun protection research
- AI qualitative research
- thematic analysis of interviews
- Hajj health research
- qualitative healthcare analysis
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