Assessment of basic knowledge on colorectal cancer and its prophylaxis in people living in small city and countryside

Roszkowska Anna, Kwolczak Justyna, Świerszcz Łukasz, Piecewicz-Szczesna Halina. Assessment of basic knowledge on colorectal cancer and its prophylaxis in people living in small city and countryside. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2018;8(9):1028-1035. eISNN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1419792 http://ojs.ukw.edu.pl/index.php/johs/article/view/5999 The journal has had 7 points in Ministry of Science and Higher Education parametric evaluation. Part b item 1223 (26/01/2017). 1223 Journal of Education, Health and Sport eissn 2391-8306 7 © The Authors 2018; This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author (s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial license Share alike. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper. Received: 02.09.2018. Revised: 12.09.2018. Accepted: 15.09.2018. Assessment of basic knowledge on colorectal cancer and its prophylaxis in people living in small city and countryside Anna Roszkowska, Justyna Kwolczak, Łukasz Świerszcz, Halina Piecewicz-Szczesna Chair and Department of Epidemiology and Clinical Research Methodology, Medical University of Lublin Corresponding author: Halina Piecewicz-Szczęsna, e-mail: halpiec@wp.pl ORCID ID: Anna Roszkowska orcid.org/0000-0003-1431-3377, annros7@gmail.com Justyna Kwolczak orcid.org/0000-0002-3260-5165, j.kwolczak@gmail.com Łukasz Świerszcz orcid.org/0000-0002-4252-9813, swierszcz.lukasz@gmail.com Halina Piecewicz-Szczęsna orcid.org/0000-0002-0573-7226, halpiec@wp.pl Abstract Introduction: Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the world in men (660,000 cases, 10%) and the second in women (570,000 cases, 9%). Almost 60% of cases occur in developed countries. Colorectal cancer is second most common type of cancer in European countries, after lung cancer in men and breast cancer in women. Mortality from colorectal cancer in Poland is higher among men than the average for European Union countries - in 2010, the mortality rate was about 50% higher than the average for European Union countries. Materials and methods: Voluntary and anonymous research was conducted in 2017 and 2018 among 300 adult people, who were randomly selected. The study used the method of a diagnostic survey, while the research tool consisted of original questionnaire. The questionnaire contained 16 questions. The collected material was subjected to descriptive analysis. Values of the analyzed parameters were measured on a nominal scale and characterized by means of numbers and percentages. The data elaboration was based on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Results: In reference to the collected data, vast majority agreed genetical factor to be crucial in developing of colorectal cancer, as 83% of subjects choose this answer in a multiple-choice question. Another multiple-choice question revealed that almost all questioned people associated rectal bleeding with symptoms of colorectal cancer – 94%. 29% of respondent admitted having a colonoscopy. Furthermore, over a half of respondents is aware of existing prophylactic programs in Poland. Conclusions: In reference to the survey, little of respondents perceive alcohol and red meat as risk factor for colorectal cancer development. Respondents who admitted having colonoscopy account for way too little group of people, from a perspective of analyzed age group. Still, little of them admitted seeing a doctor after suspicious signs/symptoms occurred. Key words: colorectal cancer, screening, prophylaxis, health educatio