Evaluation of Oral Cancer Awareness Among Patients with Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

Öz

Oral cancer is considered a serious global public health problem with the increasing number of cancer patients reported each year. The aim of this study was to assess the oral cancer awareness of patients attending the oral and maxillofacial surgery clinic in a dental faculty. A cross-sectional based survey was carried out amongst a sample of a patient in the oral and maxillofacial surgery clinic, Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University. A structured, pre-tested, 30-item questionnaire was designed to assess the awareness of patients about oral cancer and was applied to 200 patients. Data were evaluated using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS version 22). 148 valid questionnaires were attained from patients. In this study, 32.43% of the patients were smoking and %12.16 were using alcohol. The vast majority of patients were unaware of oral cancer risk factors. 13.5% of patients believed that oral cancer was contagious and 14.9% believed that oral cancer would be treated with antibiotics. Only 5.4% of the patients knew that a definitive diagnosis of oral cancer could be done by biopsy. Also, 87.8% of the patients stated that they did not have enough information about oral cancer. The study revealed that awareness of oral cancer among patients was found to be quite low. Public health promotion, education initiatives, and awareness campaigns should be applied on a local and national level to increase oral cancer awareness and knowledge in society

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Oral cancer, oral pre-malignant lesion, awareness, maksillofasiyal surgery

Oral ve Maksillofasiyal Cerrahi Hastalarında Ağız Kanseri Farkındalığının Değerlendirilmesi

Öz

Ağız kanseri, her yıl bildirilen kanser hastalarının sayısının artmasıyla ciddi bir küresel halk sağlığı sorunu olarak kabul edilmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, bir diş hekimliği fakültesinde ağız, diş ve çene cerrahisi kliniğine başvuran hastaların ağız kanseri farkındalığını değerlendirmektir. Afyonkarahisar Sağlık Bilimleri Üniversitesi, ağız, diş ve çene cerrahisi kliniğindeki bir hasta örneği arasında kesitsel bir araştırma yapılmıştır. Hastaların ağız kanseri hakkındaki farkındalığını değerlendirmek için yapılandırılmış, önceden test edilmiş 30 maddelik bir anket tasarlanmıştır ve 200 hastaya uygulanmıştır. Veriler SPSS programı ile değerlendirilmiştir. Hastalardan 148 geçerli anket elde edildi. Bu çalışmada hastaların %32.43'ü sigara içiyor ve %12.16'sı alkol kullanıyordu. Hastaların büyük çoğunluğu ağız kanseri risk faktörlerinden habersizdi. Hastaların % 13.5'i oral kanserin bulaşıcı olduğuna ve %14.9'u oral kanserin antibiyotiklerle tedavi edileceğine inanıyordu. Hastaların sadece %5.4'ü oral kanser kesin tanısının biyopsi ile yapılabileceğini biliyordu. Ayrıca, hastaların %87.8'isi oral kanser hakkında yeterli bilgiye sahip olmadıklarını ifade etti. Çalışma, hastalar arasında oral kanser farkındalığının oldukça düşük olduğunu ortaya koymuştur. Toplumda ağız kanseri bilincini ve bilgisini arttırmak için yerel ve ulusal düzeyde halk sağlığını geliştirme, eğitim girişimleri ve bilinçlendirme kampanyaları uygulanmalıdır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Ağız kanseri
• oral premalin lezyon
• farkındalık
• maksillofasiyal cerrahi

Kaynakça

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