Dinesh Prasad Sahu, Sonu H Subba, Prajna Paramita Giri
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: The global burden of cancer is increasing rapidly. In India, particularly, there is a low level of health awareness and significant information asymmetry. Improving awareness among the general population will bring about better health-seeking behavior and acceptance of screening methods. The study aims to assess the different aspects of cancer awareness and its determinants among the rural population.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted between August 2017 to August 2018. Data was collected from 1116 participants using a semistructured questionnaire. Information was collected on awareness about different cancers, sources of information, treatability, preventability, and risk factors of cancer. Data collected were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 (Armonk, NY, IBM Corp.). The level of awareness was presented as a percentage and the Odds ratio was calculated to find out the association between level of awareness and different sociodemographic characteristics.
Results: 73.5% of the study participants had heard of cancer. Oral cancer was the most common cancer known to the study participants. Television was the most common source of cancer information. Knowledge about the preventability, treatability, and risk factors of cancer was very low. Tobacco was the most common risk factor identified. Awareness of cancer was found to be significantly associated with educational status.
Conclusion: Awareness about general cancers was high, but awareness about specific cancers was low. There is a need to re-look at the health education campaigns about cancer to improve awareness of the rural population. Television and the Internet should be used as an effective medium to generate awareness about cancer.
背景：全球癌症负担正在迅速增加。特别是在印度，健康意识水平很低，信息不对称严重。提高一般人群的认识将带来更好的求医行为和对筛查方法的接受度。该研究旨在评估农村人口癌症意识及其决定因素的不同方面。方法：于2017年8月至2018年8月进行横断面研究。使用半结构化问卷从1116名参与者中收集数据。收集了关于不同癌症的认识、信息来源、可治疗性、可预防性和癌症风险因素的信息。收集的数据使用社会科学统计软件包（SPSS）版本22 （Armonk， NY, IBM Corp.）进行分析。意识水平以百分比表示，并计算比值比，以找出意识水平与不同社会人口特征之间的关系。结果：73.5%的研究参与者听说过癌症。口腔癌是研究参与者所知的最常见的癌症。电视是最常见的癌症信息来源。人们对癌症的可预防性、可治疗性和危险因素的认识非常低。烟草是最常见的风险因素。研究发现，癌症意识与受教育程度显著相关。结论：对一般癌症的认识程度较高，但对特定癌症的认识程度较低。有必要重新审视有关癌症的健康教育运动，以提高农村人口的认识。电视和互联网应该成为提高人们对癌症认识的有效媒介。
期刊介绍：
The Indian Journal of Community Medicine (IJCM, ISSN 0970-0218), is the official organ & the only official journal of the Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM). It is a peer-reviewed journal which is published Quarterly. The journal publishes original research articles, focusing on family health care, epidemiology, biostatistics, public health administration, health care delivery, national health problems, medical anthropology and social medicine, invited annotations and comments, invited papers on recent advances, clinical and epidemiological diagnosis and management; editorial correspondence and book reviews.
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