Sahu Dinesh Prasad, Subba Sonu H, Giri Prajna Paramita
Department of Community Medicine and Family Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
Indian J Community Med. 2025 Mar-Apr;50(2):324-330. doi: 10.4103/ijcm.ijcm_195_23. Epub 2025 Feb 1.
The global burden of cancer is increasing rapidly. In India, particularly, there is a low level of health awareness and significant information asymmetry. Improving awareness among the general population will bring about better health-seeking behavior and acceptance of screening methods. The study aims to assess the different aspects of cancer awareness and its determinants among the rural population.
A cross-sectional study was conducted between August 2017 to August 2018. Data was collected from 1116 participants using a semistructured questionnaire. Information was collected on awareness about different cancers, sources of information, treatability, preventability, and risk factors of cancer. Data collected were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 (Armonk, NY, IBM Corp.). The level of awareness was presented as a percentage and the Odds ratio was calculated to find out the association between level of awareness and different sociodemographic characteristics.
73.5% of the study participants had heard of cancer. Oral cancer was the most common cancer known to the study participants. Television was the most common source of cancer information. Knowledge about the preventability, treatability, and risk factors of cancer was very low. Tobacco was the most common risk factor identified. Awareness of cancer was found to be significantly associated with educational status.
Awareness about general cancers was high, but awareness about specific cancers was low. There is a need to re-look at the health education campaigns about cancer to improve awareness of the rural population. Television and the Internet should be used as an effective medium to generate awareness about cancer.
全球癌症负担正在迅速增加。特别是在印度，民众的健康意识水平较低，信息不对称现象严重。提高普通民众的意识将带来更好的就医行为和对筛查方法的接受度。本研究旨在评估农村人口对癌症的认知的不同方面及其决定因素。
于2017年8月至2018年8月进行了一项横断面研究。使用半结构化问卷从1116名参与者收集数据。收集了关于不同癌症的认知、信息来源、可治疗性、可预防性以及癌症风险因素的信息。使用社会科学统计软件包（SPSS）22版（纽约州阿蒙克，IBM公司）对收集到的数据进行分析。认知水平以百分比表示，并计算优势比以找出认知水平与不同社会人口学特征之间的关联。
73.5%的研究参与者听说过癌症。口腔癌是研究参与者最熟知的癌症。电视是最常见的癌症信息来源。关于癌症可预防性、可治疗性和风险因素的知识非常匮乏。烟草是确定的最常见风险因素。发现癌症认知与教育程度显著相关。
对一般癌症的认知较高，但对特定癌症的认知较低。有必要重新审视关于癌症的健康教育活动，以提高农村人口的认知。应将电视和互联网用作提高癌症认知的有效媒介。
