Assessing Cancer Knowledge among Health Students in Portugal

Abstract

Introduction: Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide and its incidence has been increasing. It is estimated that almost half of all cancer cases could be prevented by lifestyles changes. Cancer knowledge may be key to addressing this growing trend. This study focused on health students and its primary objective was to evaluate students’ knowledge and perceptions about cancer. Methods: In this study, the tool “Students Knowledge and Perceptions about Cancer” was used to retrieve quantitative data about students’ knowledge. Their perceptions were evaluated using a Likert scale that ranged from “Don’t know” to “Know almost everything.” This tool was shared on LinkedIn and Facebook, making the sampling method non-probabilistic. Results and Discussion: From a sample of 170 health students, 72.4% (123) got more than half of the questions right. Lung cancer is the topic with lower knowledge. Overall, there seems to be a positive statistically significant correlation between students’ knowledge and their perceptions about their knowledge (p ≤ 0.05). Despite the satisfactory levels of general knowledge about cancer, there should be more campaigns that are appealing to students that emphasise prevention as a mean to reduce cancer incidence. There is still work to be done to have more awareness among health students, especially regarding risk behaviours and screenings related to cancer. New studies with more representative samples should be conducted.