Department of Oral Medicine, Dental Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Vakil Abad Boulevard, Mashhad, Iran.
Arch Iran Med. 2010 Nov;13(6):543-8.
Early intervention improves treatment results in oral cancer. The purpose of present study was to assess the level of awareness and knowledge about oral cancer among patients referred to Mashhad Dental School.
Three hundred and twenty individuals completed a 15 item written questionnaire that focused on oral cancer risk factors, signs and symptoms, epidemiology, and treatment. Statistical analyses were performed with the Kruskal-Wallis and Friedman tests (level of significance, P=0.05).
A total of 89.4% of patients who completed the questionnaire had a poor understanding of oral cancer, particularly with regard to etiology. Additionally, 83.8% were unaware of oral cancer risk factors. Only 8.8% knew the most likely sites for oral cancer. No relation was identified between knowledge and sex (P=0.01), or age (P=0.052) of the subjects. There was a significant correlation between the level of education and knowledge score (P<0.001). Medical students and health professionals had the highest knowledge scores (P<0.001).
According to the results of this study, information regarding oral cancer knowledge is quite low. Therefore, it seems necessary to increase the level of public awareness with the use of various educational programs in order to reduce morbidity and mortality.
早期干预可改善口腔癌的治疗效果。本研究旨在评估口腔癌患者对口腔癌的认知水平和知识储备。
共有 320 人完成了一份 15 项的书面调查问卷，内容集中在口腔癌的危险因素、症状和体征、流行病学和治疗方面。采用 Kruskal-Wallis 和 Friedman 检验（显著性水平 P=0.05）进行统计分析。
完成问卷的患者中，89.4%对口腔癌的认识较差，特别是病因方面。此外，83.8%的人不知道口腔癌的危险因素。只有 8.8%的人知道口腔癌最可能发生的部位。知识水平与性别（P=0.01）或年龄（P=0.052）无关。教育程度与知识得分之间存在显著相关性（P<0.001）。医学生和卫生专业人员的知识得分最高（P<0.001）。
根据本研究的结果，口腔癌相关知识的信息水平较低。因此，似乎有必要通过各种教育项目来提高公众的认识水平，以降低发病率和死亡率。
