Public Awareness Level of Oral Cancer in a Group of Dental Patients

Abstract

Aim:The aim of this study was to evaluate levels of public awareness and knowledge about early signs and risk factors of oral cancer among a group of dental patients in Turkey. Methods and Materials:This study included 1022 participants. Sociodemographic information of patients was obtained. A questionnaire about awareness and knowledge of oral cancer and early signs and risk factors related to the disease was completed by two examiners. Data were statistically analyzed with descriptive analyses, crosstabs and chi-square tests. Results:In total 60.7% of participants had never heard of oral cancer. While 79.2% of the participants were unaware of the early signs related to oral cancer, 29.9% of them were unaware of risk factors of the disease. There were no statistically significant differences between age, gender, and education levels for awareness of risk factors. Statistically significant differences were found between age and gender and no statistically significant difference was found between education levels for awareness of early signs. Conclusion:This study showed that public awareness and knowledge about oral cancer were insufficient in Turkey. Clinical Significance:There is an important need to inform the public about oral cancer, its risk factors, and early signs of the disease. Media campaigns can be useful to raise oral cancer awareness.

Oral cancer awareness and knowledge among dental patients in South India

“…This could be because of lack of adequate information given to the public, also not everyone may feel it necessary to gain knowledge about oral cancer. This finding is consistent with the reports of the study by Elango et al (2009) (Pakfetrat et al, 2010) and Peker and Alkurt (Turkey) (Peker and Alkurt, 2010).…”

“…These results were considerably higher compared to our result with 18.3%. In our study, knowledge about early signs of oral cancer was remarkably low with 4.8% compared to studies using patients' samples among Italians (Villa et al, 2011), Turkish (Peker and Alkurt, 2010) and Iranian (Pakfetrat et al, 2010) with a wide knowledge range of 9e79%. In the public samples (Tomar and Logan, 2005;West et al, 2006;Hertrampf et al, 2011a, Hertrampf et al, 2011b, a knowledge range was observed from 26% to 50%.…”

“…In previous studies with dental patient samples (Elango et al, 2009;Al-Dakkak, 2010;Peker and Alkurt, 2010;Villa et al, 2011) or public samples (Shetty and Johnson, 1999;West et al, 2006;Amarasinghe et al, 2010;Rogers et al, 2010;Hertrampf et al, 2011a;Hertrampf et al, 2011b) the risk factor 'tobacco' was known by 65e88% of the responders. These results were considerably higher compared to our result with 18.3%.…”

Public awareness of oral cancer among adults in Jakarta, Indonesia

“…Only 532 participants (53.2%) were aware of oral cancer; the remaining participants had never heard of oral cancer. Oral cancer awareness found in the present study was slightly higher than a previous study conducted in Turkey in 2010 . However, our results are similar to previous studies from other parts of the world that ranged from 56% to 96% .…”

“…Good public awareness of oral cancer would increase the number of patients reporting with early signs to primary care centers, therefore increasing the possibility of early detection . While there are many studies that have reported oral cancer knowledge of people from different countries, studies from Indonesia are lacking . Therefore, the aim of this present study was to investigate the awareness of oral cancer among adults in Jakarta and to determine the factors influencing oral cancer awareness.…”