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New Indian Journal of Surgery

Volume  2, Issue 4, October - December 2011, Pages 207-207
 

Original Article

Knowledge, Attitude and Practices regarding Oral Cancer

Aayush Gabrani

Maulana Azad Medical College

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Abstract

 Oral cancer continues to burden the clinical and economic dimensions of health care around the world. InIndia, oral cancers constitute 40% of all cancers and rank as the most common cancer in men and third mostcommon cancer in women. Recently, a trend has been observed towards increasing incidence of oral canceramong young adults. In this study we assessedKnowledge, attitude and practices regarding oral cancer among first year medical collegestudents in Delhi, India.In addition, the relationship between socioeconomic-demographics and oral hygiene wasexamined.Materials and methodsThis was a crosssectional study among 200 First year medical college students in Delhi. Students were givena selfadministered questionnaire, which was pre-tested, after getting a written informed consent. Data wereentered in SPSS-17 version. ‘p’ value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.ResultsTwo hundred students, 117 males (58.5%) and 83 females (41.5%) participated. The mean age was 19.5±0.05SD years (Range: 17-22 years). Majority (75%) knew oral cancer to be the commonest in India, followed by lungcancer (13.5%). 95% students responded that they knew about the risk factors for oral cancer, viz. smoking(89%), tobacco chewing (99%), alcohol intake (43%), poor oral hygiene(56%), family history (53%), recurrentoral ulcers (60%). The pre-malignant lesions were known to 23% students. Awareness about symptoms of oralcancer was: bleeding/recurrent oral ulcer (85%), painful lesions in mouth (26%), loose teeth (4%), difficulty inmouth opening (4%), dysphagia (9%) and weight loss (2%). 82% respondents visited a dentist (55% for regularcheck-up and 45% for other dental problems). Relatives of 6 study subjects (3%) suffered from oral cancer inthe past for which all of them underwent treatment. Only 55% respondents perceived their oral hygiene to begood/ excellent and 64% were doing self oral examination. Around 92.5% subjects strongly disagreed to thestatement “White patch in the mouth should be ignored”. 22% of the respondents consumed tobacco in someform (65.1% consumed in the form of hookah, followed by cigarette 28%). 17.5% study subjects reported tohave ever consumed alcohol. Tobacco consumption was higher among males, i.e. 34/117 (29%) as comparedto females, i.e. 9/83 (10.8%) (‘p’ = 0.002), and 27/117 (23%) males as compared to 8/83 (9.6%) femalesconsumed alcohol (‘p’ = 0.03). Families with less than 5 members brushed more than once a day (52.8%) ascompared to families with 5 or more members (45.5%) (‘p’ = 0.021). Families with per capita income morethan Rs. 30,001 brushed more than once a day (75.7%) as compared to the families with per capita income lessthan Rs. 30,000 (45.3%) (‘p’= 0.029). Awareness about risk factors for oral cancer was higher among Females(33.7%), as compared to Males (15.4%) (‘p’=0.02), and 100% Females as compared to Males (94%) were awareabout pre-cancerous lesions of oral cavity (‘p’=0.02).ConclusionMajority of the medical students were aware about oral cancer (75%), signs and symptoms (49%), risk factor(95%), pre-malignant lesions (23%). Of the respondents, 22% have ever smoked, 17.5% have ever consumedalcohol and 63.5% were doing oral self examination. Families with a higher income pay more attention to oralhygiene. The study suggests the need for focussing on reduction of tobacco and alcohol consumption, andencourage oral self examination among study subjects. It will be important to achieve this in this study groupwho will be later involved in health care and education of oral cancer in the general population.


Corresponding Author : Aayush Gabrani