What Hajj Interviews Reveal About Sun Protection Research

According to the November 11, 2026 PLoS One study on sun protection during Hajj, pilgrims and nurses recognized sun exposure as a health concern but often understood it mainly as heat, not as a distinct ultraviolet radiation risk.

The qualitative sun protection research identified five themes: physical and emotional effects, knowledge gaps, cultural influences, practical barriers, and recommendations for improvement. The findings support multilingual pre-Hajj education, affordable protective products, and messages that clearly distinguish heat-related illness from UV-related harm.

• The study interviewed 29 people, including 16 Saudi pilgrims and 13 registered nurses, between June 20 and July 11, 2025.
• The researchers reported five major themes after analyzing interviews using Braun and Clarke’s six-phase thematic analysis approach in 2025 and 2026.
• The study found that UPF-rated clothing and umbrellas were poorly understood, while cost, availability, comfort, language, and cultural clothing norms limited protective behavior.
• A 2025 Hajj health study cited by the authors found that 26.9% of pilgrims did not use umbrellas in direct sunlight.
• One participant summarized the knowledge gap by saying, “Everyone knows the sun is harmful, but I don’t think we understand how exactly.”

The Qaladi et al. study used a qualitative descriptive design with retrospective, semi-structured interviews conducted through Zoom from June 20 to July 11, 2025, approximately one month after the 2025 Hajj season.

The study included 16 Saudi pilgrims and 13 registered nurses who had worked in hospitals in Makkah and Madinah during Hajj. The researchers used purposive sampling because pilgrims and nurses were expected to provide different perspectives on sun protection.

The researchers transcribed interviews verbatim, translated Arabic interviews into English, audited a random 20% sample of translated transcripts, invited participants to review their transcripts, and used investigator triangulation. These procedures were reported in the November 11, 2026 PLoS One article as safeguards for meaning and trustworthiness.

The research team analyzed transcripts in NVivo 12.6 and followed Braun and Clarke’s six phases: familiarization, initial coding, theme development, theme review, theme definition, and reporting. The researchers assessed saturation separately for pilgrims and nurses, reaching it after 16 pilgrim interviews and 13 nurse interviews.

The study’s design also has limits. The Qaladi et al. article states that the sample included Saudi pilgrims from one Hajj season, so the findings should not automatically represent the broader international pilgrim population. The interviews captured recalled and self-reported behavior rather than directly observed behavior.

The Hajj interviews show that effective sun protection interventions must address meaning, access, communication, and behavior together, rather than treating awareness as a simple information deficit.

The Qaladi et al. study found that many participants framed sun exposure as a heat problem. Participants described exhaustion, dizziness, dehydration, and fainting, while UV-specific outcomes such as sunburn and eye irritation were raised less often. The distinction matters because hydration, rest, and cooling address heat-related illness, whereas sunscreen and UPF-rated clothing or umbrellas address ultraviolet exposure.

The study found that cultural and religious interpretations influenced protective behavior. Some participants described enduring heat as part of the spiritual challenge of Hajj, while other participants reported that umbrella use had become more socially accepted. The findings suggest that public health messages should work with existing values rather than presenting culture as a fixed obstacle.

The research also identified different priorities by segment. Nurses emphasized multilingual communication, formal training, and systemic barriers, while pilgrims emphasized cost, comfort, availability, and forgetting protective items. Cross-segment qualitative analysis can preserve these differences instead of reducing them to one overall frequency count.

The findings are research-focused and non-diagnostic. Health teams should use the study to design and evaluate prevention communications, not to diagnose individuals or infer behavior beyond the sampled participants.

The Hajj study shows why qualitative sun protection research must examine lived experience, cultural meaning, product access, and communication barriers together. The study’s 29 interviews and five themes provide a focused example of how thematic analysis can turn personal accounts into practical public health recommendations.

AI-enabled qualitative research can make that workflow more manageable by organizing multilingual transcripts, comparing participant segments, surfacing recurring themes, and keeping findings connected to source evidence. Human researchers must still validate interpretations, especially when research involves sensitive health topics and culturally specific experiences.

Teams studying sun safety, mass gatherings, health communication, or user behavior can try Evidano for free to move from qualitative data to clearer, reviewable insight.