Nursing students' knowledge and related factors towards skin cancer: A systematic review

Abstract

This systematic review aims to examine the nursing students' knowledge and related factors towards skin cancer. In order to conduct this comprehensive and review study, articles were searched from the earliest to April 1, 2023 using keywords extracted from Medical Subject Headings such as "knowledge", "skin cancer", and "nursing students" in various international electronic databases such as Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, and Persian electronic databases such as Iranmedex and Scientific Information Database. The appraisal tool for cross-sectional studies (AXIS tool) was used to evaluate the quality of the studies included in this article. In total, 2,841 nursing students participated in five cross-sectional studies. The average age of the students was 20.93 (SD=1.89). 78.07% of the students in this study were female. 19.70% of students had a history of skin cancer in their family member. The average nursing students' knowledge and related factors towards skin cancer was 14.78 (SD=2.68) out of 25 which suggests a moderate level of knowledge. Factors such as year of study, female gender, age, using cosmetics, using depilatory wax, using epilating appliance, skin cancer caused by sun exposure, and protection of information have a significant positive relationship with nursing students' knowledge about skin cancer. However, knowledge had a negative relationship with factors such as using shaving, having mole, and having swelling. Additionally, the factors of father education, place of residence, sunburn frequency, source information had a significant relationship with nursing students' knowledge about skin cancer. According to the results of this review, the knowledge of nursing students in skin cancer is moderate. Therefore, nursing professors may contribute to the development of nursing students' knowledge by providing an online or physical education platform related to skin cancer.