Marouf Azmi, Tayeb Rama, Alshehri Ghady D, Fatani Hana Z, Nassif Mohammed O, Farsi Ali H, Akeel Nouf Y, Saleem Abdulaziz M, Samkari Ali A, Trabulsi Nora H
Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
J Family Med Prim Care. 2023 Jun;12(6):1125-1132. doi: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1753_22. Epub 2023 Jun 30.
PURPOSE/BACKGROUND: Patients and healthcare providers use online health information and social media (SM) platforms to seek medical information. As the incidence of cancer rises, the popularity of SM platforms has yielded widespread dissemination of incorrect or misleading information about it. In this study, we aimed to assess public knowledge about incorrect cancer information and how they perceive such information in Saudi Arabia.
A nationwide survey was distributed in Saudi Arabia. The survey included questions on demographics, SM platform usage, and common misleading and incorrect cancer information.
The sample (N = 3509, mean age 28.7 years) consisted of 70% females and 92.6% Saudi nationals. Most participants had no chronic illness. One-third were college graduates and less than one-quarter were unemployed.
Differences in level of knowledge about cancer emerged in association with different demographic factors. Public trust in health information on SM also led to being misinformed about cancer, independent from educational level and other factors. Efforts should be made to rapidly correct this misinformation.
目的/背景：患者和医疗服务提供者利用在线健康信息和社交媒体（SM）平台来获取医疗信息。随着癌症发病率的上升，SM平台的普及导致了有关癌症的错误或误导性信息的广泛传播。在本研究中，我们旨在评估沙特阿拉伯公众对错误癌症信息的了解程度以及他们对这类信息的认知。
在沙特阿拉伯开展了一项全国性调查。该调查包括有关人口统计学、SM平台使用情况以及常见的误导性和错误癌症信息的问题。
样本（N = 3509，平均年龄28.7岁）中70%为女性，92.6%为沙特国民。大多数参与者没有慢性病。三分之一是大学毕业生，不到四分之一处于失业状态。
与不同的人口统计学因素相关，在癌症知识水平上出现了差异。公众对SM上健康信息的信任也导致了在癌症方面被误导，这与教育水平和其他因素无关。应努力迅速纠正这种错误信息。
