Awareness and knowledge about oral cancer in adult patients visiting Islamic International Dental Hospital, Islamabad, Pakistan

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to assess the level of awareness about oral cancer among patients who visited Islamic International Dental Hospital, Islamabad, Pakistan. It was quantitative study that employed descriptive cross-sectional design. The Quantitative study design was selected because it was less time consuming and cost effective. This study included a pre-existing questionnaire. The pre-existing questionnaire was in English and Urdu language [national language of Pakistan]. It included 15 questions regarding patient knowledge about the spread of disease, etiology, prognosis, sign and symptoms, risk factors and treatment of the disease. All patients aged 18 years and above visiting [random sampling] Islamic International Dental Hospital, Islamabad during the specified period of time. [Between 20thJune - July 2011] were approached and invited to participate in the study. Maximum sampling of 100 patients including 60 male patients and 40 female patients were done. The respondents were then selected on the basis of filling the inclusion criteria. Pearson chi-square test and descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution and cross-tabulation were used to analyze the data through SPSS. Level of significance was set at 0.05 or smaller than this value. The final results show that 54% of the participants were only aware of the knowledge and awareness regarding oral cancer. A significant number of patients [29%] were found after going through all the data that were collected to be totally unaware or ignorant of the actual price that had to be payed for tobacco smoking. Lastly, only about 17% of the respondents had intermediate knowledge about mouth cancer. Regarding risk factors 95% expressed awareness that smoking and smokeless tobacco [including betel nut, pan and chalia] were cause of oral cancer and the P-value was also found to be significant [0.053].It was concluded that information regarding oral cancer knowledge was good