Eating habits, knowledge about cancer prevention and the HPLP scale in Turkish adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Nutritional status and healthy lifestyle are important factors not only in cancer etiology but also for prevention efforts. A good nutritional status contributes to a healthy life with high economic, social and cultural level. Unhealthy eating habits are part of risky behavior seen from adolescence. The present study was therefore carried out to determine eating habits, level of knowledge about cancer prevention and behavior of a group of adolescents. METHODS: Data were collected using questionnaire covering eating habits and knowledge of adolescents on prevention from cancer, and special scale (HPLP) to determine the related behavior. Three hundred sixty six of 390 students volunteered for study. RESULTS: Eating habits and the level of cancer prevention knowledge were similar for both genders, except for the exercise issue. The mean total points of adolescents in the Health Promotion Behavior and Subscales was 113,63. While spiritual growth had the highest score in HPLP subscale, exercise had a minimal score. Exercise was the only HPLP subscale with a statistically significant difference between male and female genders. CONCLUSIONS: Although they have some information, the adolescents surveyed did not have preventive skills relative to their practical life. In general in order to ensure cancer prevention and a healthy life style social, cultural and sportive activities should be encouraged and educational programmes supporting these goals should be designed and applied for all stages of life, starting in early childhood.

Cervical cancer prevention and early detection--the role of nurses and midwives.

Worldwide 31% of cancers in women are in the breast or uterine cervix. Cancer of the uterine cervix is one of the leading causes of cancer death among women. The estimated new cancer cervix cases per year is 500.000 of which 79% occur in the developing countries, where it is consistently the leading cancer and there are in excess of 233.000 deaths from the disease. The major risk factors for cervical cancer include early age at first intercourse, multiple sexual partners, low socioeconomic status, HSV, HPV infection, cigarette smoking and extended use of oral contraceptives. Well organized and applied public education and mass screening programmes can substantially reduce the mortality from cervical cancer and the incidence of invasive disease in the population. Women who are health conscious are more likely to have used screening services (mammogram, pap-smear test) and performed breast-self examination and genital hygiene. There are both opportunities and burdens for nurses and midwives working in primary health care settings. This is a prime example of a role of public education in cancer prevention with reference to population-based cancer screening programs.

Prevention and health education: how recent advances in the science and art of health education have been applied in practical ways within medical and other settings for prevention and public health.

The terms health education, patient education, self-care education, school health education, and health promotion are distinguished from each other as follows. Health education is a subset or strategy within each of these but is the primary and dominant strategy in health promotion. Health education occurs through the health care providers in various settings: worksites, medical, community agencies and schools. Nurses and midwives are the most important health care providers to train people for health promotion and cancer prevention. We appreciate the importance of the "Fight against Cancer" movement in the primary health care centre and its health care providers who inform people about cancer and its symptoms, how to find lesions and early stages, and how to avoid hazardous factors. This is as process of continuous information transfer by in-service education. Primary prevention should encompass all actions aimed to reducing the occurrence of cancer. In reviewing recent advances in science and how the art of health education has been applied in practical ways within medical and other settings for prevention and public health, we can point ot the necessity for facilities like an APOCP Training Centre as a venue for scientific courses.