Al Abdouli Latifa, Dalmook Hend, Akram Abdo Maha, Carrick Frederick Robert, Abdul Rahman Mahera
Primary Healthcare Sector, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Email:
Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2018 Aug 24;19(8):2343-2349. doi: 10.22034/APJCP.2018.19.8.2343.
United Arab Emirates initiated the colorectal cancer (CRC) screening on 2013. Yet, one of the barriers to participation in CRC screening is lack of knowledge about the importance of CRC, its risk factors, and the benefits that could be gained through screening. We aimed in this study to identify knowledge, attitude, and behavioral factors among the public that are associated with willingness to undergo CRC screening. A structured bilingual questionnaire in English and Arabic was designed by a multidisciplinary team and through a review of the literature. The survey consisted of four functional domains: socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude, and practice related questions. It was encouraging that more than 65% of the total participants surveyed for the study were aware of CRC and their main source of information was media (395, 66%). However, the majority (379, 64%) were thinking that CRC is not common, and did not hear of the screening test for CRC (401, 67%). An overall evaluation of the answers revealed a poor level of knowledge on risk factors of CRC, and only 40% correctly identified fecal occult blood as main test for CRC prevention. Surprisingly, 95% of participants mentioned that the CRC screening was not recommended to them by a physician. This is the first report analyzing the awareness, attitude and practice of UAE population and assessing the barriers for CRC screening. Our results demonstrate that better education and communication of the benefits of early detection of CRC should be addressed to improve the screening in UAE population. There is need for campaigns and educational programs, both for health care providers and public. Media might play a significant role in this aspect and new policies need to focus more on increasing community awareness on cancer preventive measures in UAE.
阿拉伯联合酋长国于2013年启动了结直肠癌（CRC）筛查。然而，参与CRC筛查的障碍之一是缺乏对CRC的重要性、其风险因素以及通过筛查可获得的益处的了解。我们在本研究中的目的是确定公众中与愿意接受CRC筛查相关的知识、态度和行为因素。一个多学科团队通过文献回顾设计了一份英语和阿拉伯语的结构化双语问卷。该调查包括四个功能领域：社会人口统计学特征、知识、态度以及与实践相关的问题。令人鼓舞的是，参与该研究调查的总参与者中超过65%了解CRC，他们的主要信息来源是媒体（395人，占66%）。然而，大多数人（占64%，即379人）认为CRC并不常见，并且没有听说过CRC筛查测试（占67%，即401人）。对答案的总体评估显示，对CRC风险因素的了解水平较低，只有40%的人正确将粪便潜血识别为预防CRC的主要检测方法。令人惊讶的是，95%的参与者提到医生没有向他们推荐CRC筛查。这是第一份分析阿联酋人群的认知度、态度和实践并评估CRC筛查障碍的报告。我们的结果表明，应更好地开展关于早期发现CRC益处的教育和宣传，以改善阿联酋人群的筛查情况。无论是针对医疗保健提供者还是公众，都需要开展宣传活动和教育项目。媒体在这方面可能发挥重要作用，新政策需要更多地关注提高阿联酋社区对癌症预防措施的认识。
