Colon cancer is the most common malignancy in the digestive tract. its incidence is the same in men and women and has remained almost constant over the past 20 years. screening once every 5 years to identify people at risk has led to a 60-70% reduction in the incidence of this cancer. the main goal of this study was to determine the level of awareness of the patients to the health center by risk factors, symptoms of colon cancer and the screening of the disease.
Methods
: this cross-sectional study was carried out in 2017 using available sampling method on 150 clients of the health center. data was collected by standard questionnaire. the questionnaire has 27 questions in four areas. participants answered questions about (age, sex, level of education, marital status and family history of colon cancer) and risk factors (9 items), symptoms (10 questions) and screening (3 questions). first, the objectives of the study were explained to all participants. all those who were willing and literate entered the study. the questionnaires were completed in their own right. data analysis was done using spss software version 18.
Results
The age range of participants was 17 years to 77 years with a mean of 37.5 ± 12.7. of the 150 participants, 92 (61.3%) were female. the majority of participants (54%) had diploma and lower education. also, 70% of the participants were married. in the knowledge of risk factors, the mean scores were 8.5 ± 1.4. in the knowledge section of the disease, the mean scores were 6.5 ± 1.9. in the knowledge section of the disease screening, the mean scores were 1.5 ± 0.87. there was a direct correlation between the level of knowledge of people and their educational level.
Conclusion
In this study, it was found that the participants knowledge about the risk factors for colon cancer at moderate level in symptoms of illness was high and screening of the disease was low.increasing people awareness of the symptoms and risk factors of the disease, improve their attitude to the disease and increase their collaboration in screening. as a result, timely screening will cause early diagnosis and reduce the incidence and mortality of the disease.
