Abstract
Objective:To assess the level of cancer awareness and the relationship between the awareness of common cancer symptoms and risk factors and the sample’s sociodemographic profile. Methods:A community-based cross-sectional study conducted in Tabuk city, a convenient sample of 675 participants completed a questionnaire about common factors causing cancer and symptoms related to cancer. Descriptive statistics and chi-squared analysis were used to measure sample characteristics and their association with knowledge of cancer risk factors and symptoms. Results:Level of education and family history were significantly related to awareness of cancer risk factors (P= 0.017) and (P= 0.048), respectively. Factors were significantly associated with awareness of cancer symptoms include Gender (P=0.000), nationality (P=0.013), and undergoing regular cancer screening tests (0.008). Internet was the primary source of information about cancer and related significantly to knowledge about cancer symptoms(P=0.000) and risk factors(P=0.00). More than half of the sample scored poorly for knowledge of both cancer risk factors (58.7%) and symptoms (66.2%) in terms of the overall level of cancer awareness. Smoking and heredity were the most identifiable cancer risk factors, and unexplained pain and weight loss were identified by the majority of study participants. Conclusion:The level of community knowledge requires further investigation, and more cancer awareness programs need to be conducted. People could be encouraged to use reliable sources of information to obtain accurate cancer information.
Highlights
Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide and accounted for 9.6 million deaths in 2018 (WHO, 2018)
A cross-sectional community-based study was conducted to explore the awareness of cancer risk factors and symptoms in Saudi Arabia
The primary source of cancer information was from the internet (41.3%) and social media (18.8%), while 12.4% reported that they learned about cancer from awareness campaigns
Summary
Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide and accounted for 9.6 million deaths in 2018 (WHO, 2018). The most prevalent cancers are lung, breast, colorectal, prostate, skin, and stomach cancer (National Cancer Institute, 2020). In Saudi Arabia, 24,485 new cases of cancer were detected in 2018 across all age groups and both sexes, including breast, colorectal, and thyroid cancer, leukemia, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma; these were the top five cancers leading to mortality (International Agency for Research on Cancer, 2018). Despite the small number of cancer cases in Saudi Arabia compared with the rest of the world, the number of cases is expected to increase each year due to radical lifestyle changes and the Saudi population’s expected growth (Althubiti and Eldein, 2018). The National Cancer Institute (2015) reported risk factors of cancer including age, heredity, exposure to chemical substances, and ionizing or ultraviolet radiation
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