A community-based study on awareness of cancer and anticipated barriers in seeking help

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dc.contributor.authorSharma, Deepaken_US
dc.contributor.authorGoel, Naveen Krishanen_US
dc.contributor.authorSharma, Munish Kumaren_US
dc.contributor.authorWalia, Dinesh Kumaren_US
dc.contributor.authorPuri, Soniaen_US
dc.date.accessioned2020-01-02T06:42:01Z
dc.date.available2020-01-02T06:42:01Z
dc.date.issued2019-06
dc.description.abstractCancer is a leading public health problem worldwide. Contributing factors include lack of awareness regarding cancer and improper help seeking behavior. Objective: To assess the awareness regarding early warning signs of cancer, its risk factors and anticipated barriers in seeking help. Methodology: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 470 study participants. Trained workers administered a standardized tool to respondents after obtaining their informed consent. Epi Info software for windows version 7.2 was used for the analysis. Results: Overall, merely 7.7% (36/470) of the study respondents were aware of all the nine warning signs of cancer. The most commonly known early warning sign of cancer was “unexplained swelling” (58.3%). Further, although majority knew that cigarette smoking is a risk factor for cancer (90.4%), very few were aware about the role of inadequate physical activity (9.3%) and diet devoid of adequate amounts of fruits and vegetables (11.9%). There were few anticipated barriers in seeking help such as embarrassment (13.2%) and difficult to interact with a doctor (7.9%). Conclusion: There was inadequate awareness about cancer but a favorable help-seeking behavior. It is, therefore, recommended that health-care professionals should scale up efforts for disseminating information regarding cancer among the people.en_US
dc.identifier.affiliationsDepartment of Community Medicine, Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh, Indiaen_US
dc.identifier.citationSharma Deepak, Goel Naveen Krishan, Sharma Munish Kumar, Walia Dinesh Kumar, Puri Sonia. A community-based study on awareness of cancer and anticipated barriers in seeking help . Indian Journal of Community and Family Medicine. 2019 Jun; 5(1): 61-65en_US
dc.identifier.issn2395-2113
dc.identifier.issn2666-3120
dc.identifier.placeIndiaen_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://imsear.searo.who.int/handle/123456789/191837
dc.languageenen_US
dc.publisherWolters Kluwer - Medknow Publicationsen_US
dc.relation.issuenumber1en_US
dc.relation.volume5en_US
dc.source.urihttps://dx.doi.org/10.4103/IJCFM.IJCFM_34_19en_US
dc.subjectCanceren_US
dc.subjectearly warning signen_US
dc.subjectrisk factorsen_US
dc.titleA community-based study on awareness of cancer and anticipated barriers in seeking helpen_US
dc.typeJournal Articleen_US
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