A Survey to Assess the Awareness and Attitude on Cancer Disease among Rural Community

Cancer is a major burden worldwide, and more than half of all cancers occur in the developing countries. A substantial proportion of the impact of cancer can be prevented through the application of cancer control knowledge, early detection and treatment. Existing evidence indicates that public awareness on cancer and of warning signs is poor.

The study was conducted to (1) assess the awareness and attitude on cancer disease (2) to identify the relationship between awareness and attitude (3) and to find association of awareness and attitude with socio demographic characteristics.

It's a community based descriptive cross sectional survey. Participants: a total of 50 rural people who reside in Dahad area, Loni (Bk) village of Ahmednagar Dist, Maharashtra and aged above 18 years had participated. Systematic random sampling technique was used to select the study subjects. Tool: self prepared and pre tested structured questionnaire and rating scale used to gather information on knowledge and attitude on cancer respectively. Statistical analysis: descriptive statistics (mean. SD, mean percent) and inferential statistics (chi square test) were applied wherever required.

The findings of the study shows that overall awareness mean score was (16.84±1.69) which is 67.36% of total score indicates people had average level awareness on ‘cancer disease’ whereas the participants had highest mean percent 73.5% for the area of ‘treatment of cancer’ and lowest mean percent 58% for ‘risk factors of cancer’. However the participants had positive attitude on cancer disease with the mean score of (55.34±2.14) which is 73.7% of total score. There was a significant association found between the awareness and socio demographic characteristics like education and live with cancer patient at P<0.05 level.

Study outcome revealed that though the people had positive attitude, their awareness level was minimal. The awareness imports the health seeking behaviors and may control the overwhelmed risk of cancer and other life issues. Thus it is recommended that the health education efforts for cancer risk factors and detection is significant and substantive, hence the health authorities should give priority to community-oriented cancer awareness programmes.