Knowledge, attitude, preventive practices and perceived barriers to screening about colorectal cancer among university students of newly merged district, Kpk, Pakistan – A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction Colorectal cancer is the third most common type of cancer in the world and in Pakistan it ranks at fifth position. The present study was conducted to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, preventive practices and perceived barriers to screening about colorectal cancer among university students. Method A cross-sectional study was conducted after developing a self-administered questionnaire among the university students of newly merged districts of Kpk, Pakistan Result A total of 302 students (232 male and 70 female) participated in the study. The knowledge score of the participants regarding the risk factors and warning signs of colorectal cancer was 59.9% and 40%. More than 90% of the participants were of the view that colorectal cancer diagnosis at initial stages can improve treatment and around 80% were in favor of undergoing regular physical examination to avoid colorectal cancer. Only 37.7% of the participants had intentionally collected information about colorectal cancer. The percentage of participants who intentionally participated in educational activities related to colorectal cancer was 33.1%. Furthermore, only 24.4% of the participant had ever taken part in colorectal cancer screening. The barriers toward colorectal cancer screening were fear of finding colorectal cancer and the anxiety of screening procedures. However, around 32% of the participants had no knowledge about colorectal cancer screening. Conclusion In view of the findings of this study, it can be suggested that community awareness programs that are focused towards screening of colorectal cancer may be initiated in the newly merged districts of Kpk, Pakistan. The implementation of such colorectal cancer screening program can help in its early detection and can potentially lower the associated mortality and morbidity risk with this disease.

Awareness of Colorectal Cancer and Associated Factors Among Adult Patients in Jimma, South-West Ethiopia.

“…This might be due to the difference in socio-economic status and organizational policies and access to the information-related to CRC, and its risk factors. The result of this study is also lower than the finding of studies conducted in Pakistan [53] which is 66.6%. This discrepancy might be due to differences in the study population in which the Pakistan study included only young university students and might be getting awareness through the educational curriculum.…”

Barriers and facilitators of colorectal cancer screening in Asia

“…Results of five studies showed fear of the painful medical procedures [11,20,38,39,41]. Fear of tumour detection and test result subsequent fear of developing CRC and fear of complications cause ignorance of screening [11,22,29,33,41,43,46,49]. Of the included studies, 51.6% reported fear of painful medical procedures as perceived barriers [11].…”

“…CRC and fear of complications cause ignorance of screening [ 11 , 22 , 29 , 33 , 41 , 43 , 46 , 49 ]. Of the included studies, 51.6% reported fear of painful medical procedures as perceived barriers [ 11 ].…”

“…United Arab Emirates [12] Saudi Arabia [11, 20, 21, 27-30, 40, 53] Malaysia [22,34,35,43,46,48] Iran [23,24,44,45,50] China [18,31,47] Pakistan [32,33] Singapore [17,49,51] Thailand [36] Palestine [37] Lebanon [38] Turkey [39] Korea [41] Jordan [42,52] [11,20,24,28,29,44,45,47,51,52] Colonoscopy [12,18,20,21,28,44,47,52] Various methods (FOBT, colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy and FIT) [17, 22, 23, 27, 32, 37-41, 48, 49] NA [30, 31, 33-36, 42, 43, 46, 50, 53]…”

Awareness About Colorectal Cancer among Young Adults in Poland

“…Similar observations were performed in the study by Rocke et al, in which only half of respondents considered the development of colorectal cancer equally dangerous in both genders 20 . Some analysis concerning CRC con rmed that women were more knowledgeable than men 20,21,32,33 . Recent studies suggest that a higher proportion of women is diagnosed with right-sided CRC, at a more advanced stage 34 .…”