Awareness regarding oral cancer and oral precancerous lesions among rural population of Belgaum district, India

Abstract

Belgaum district of Karnataka state is well known for high production and consumption of tobacco in Southern India. This study aimed to investigate the rural population's awareness of oral cancer, precancerous lesions and their risk factors. Data were collected via face to face interviews using a pretested and validated questionnaire. The questionnaire comprised two parts: part one had questions concerning socio-demographic data and part two consisted of 25 questions pertaining to people's attitudes to and awareness of risk factors for oral cancer and precancerous lesions. One researcher interviewed participants and recorded the responses verbatim. Of the participants, 17% identified all the symptoms of oral cancer and 27.8% identified all the symptoms of oral precancerous lesions. Approximately 90% of the participants had never noticed statutory warnings on tobacco and alcohol products. Awareness was especially poor in people of lower socio-economic status. This study highlights a need for education concerning the risk factors for oral cancer, its clinical manifestations and the impact of adverse habits on long term health. Health education campaigns emphasizing oral cancer need to be integrated with broader public health messages.

The length of patient and primary care time interval in the pathways to treatment in symptomatic oral cancer. A quantitative systematic review

“…23,26,31 Reports from India 34 and Iran 32 describe longer patient interval potentially linked to an insufficient awareness. 39 An "alarming lack of public awareness," particularly in vulnerable subpopulations, 40 has also been detected in high-income countries, 41,42 which may justify the finding of wide patient intervals in developed countries. 22,27 This phenomenon may be related to cognitive/psycho-F I G U R E 2 Time intervals in the route from first symptom until start of treatment social determinants, such as fate, symptom interpretation, misattribution (to infection or dental problems), to a belief that the symptom is trivial, stoicism, fear and lack of knowledge on oral cancer.…”

“…Even though a 3‐week time has been considered reasonable for this interval, the data retrieved from the literature widely exceed this duration, and only three studies from Finland and the Netherlands have used a period of less than 1.5 months . Reports from India and Iran describe longer patient interval potentially linked to an insufficient awareness . An “alarming lack of public awareness,” particularly in vulnerable subpopulations, has also been detected in high‐income countries, which may justify the finding of wide patient intervals in developed countries …”

Cancer awareness and attitude towards cancer screening in India: A narrative review

“…and 86% by Elango et al . [ 10 11 12 13 ] In contrast to these, Reddy et al . in Hyderabad found 60.2% awareness about oral cancer.…”

Sneak Peek into Tobacco Habits and Associated Insidious Oral Lesions in an Odisha Sample Population

“…Awareness was especially poor in people of lower socio-economic status. It was highlighted that there is a need for education concerning the risk factors for oral cancer, its clinical manifestations and the impact of adverse habits on long term health (Sankeshwari et al, 2015). Compared to never smokers, established smokers were more aware of the warning labels and talked about them more (White et al, 2008).…”

“…has been discussed at length in the past in various studies nationally (Acharya et al, 2014;Chandroth et al, 2014;Sankeshwari et al, 2015) and internationally (Al-Attas et al, 2014;Al-Maweri et al, 2014). The oral effects of such habits, though varied, are significantly related to occurrence of potentially malignant disorders like oral leukoplakia, erythroplakia, oral submucous fibrosis and malignant lesions like oral squamous cell carcinoma.…”