A telephone survey of cancer awareness among frontline staff: informing training needs

Background: Studies have shown limited awareness about cancer risk factors among hospital-based staff. Less is known about general cancer awareness among community frontline National Health Service and social care staff. Methods: A cross-sectional computer-assisted telephone survey of 4664 frontline community-based health and social care staff in North West England. Results: A total of 671 out of 4664 (14.4%) potentially eligible subjects agreed to take part. Over 92% of staff recognised most warning signs, except an unexplained pain (88.8%, n=596), cough or hoarseness (86.9%, n=583) and a sore that does not heal (77.3%, n=519). The bowel cancer-screening programme was recognised by 61.8% (n=415) of staff. Most staff agreed that smoking and passive smoking ‘increased the chance of getting cancer.’ Fewer agreed about getting sunburnt more than once as a child (78.0%, n=523), being overweight (73.5%, n=493), drinking more than one unit of alcohol per day (50.2%, n=337) or doing less than 30 min of moderate physical exercise five times a week (41.1%, n=276). Conclusion: Cancer awareness is generally good among frontline staff, but important gaps exist, which might be improved by targeted education and training and through developing clearer messages about cancer risk factors

Proceedings: 9th World Congress on Preventive Dentistry (WCPD): "Community Participation and Global Alliances for Lifelong Oral Health for All," Phuket, Thailand, September 7-10, 2009

Background of the congress: The International Association for Dental Research (IADR) hosted the 9 th World Congress on Preventive Dentistry (WCPD) in Phuket, Thailand in September, 2009. Previous WCPD’s have been held approximately once every four years and are held in different parts of the world to communicate the latest research findings that can have a positive impact on dental public health and to fulfill part of IADR’s Mission, "to facilitate the communication and application of research findings." The theme for the 9 th WCPD was "Community Participation and Global Alliances for Lifelong Oral Health for All." The IADR partnered with many organizations from the public health, practice, research, and education communities—both globally and locally—to maximize the impact of the meeting. Objectives: Given the growing body of scientific evidence linking oral health to general health and the quality of life, the WCPD sought to: * build coalitions to implement the WHO Resolution (2007), Oral health: action plan for promotion and integrated disease prevention; * continue the work of the 8 th WCPD’s Liverpool Declaration and build on the science base for evidence-based approaches to promoting oral health at the community, national, regional, and global levels; *encourage the integration of oral health promotion and oral disease prevention policies into wider health promotion activities, including, but not limited to, a common risk factor approach; *provide networking opportunities for the scientific interchange of best practices for oral health promotion; *provide a platform for preventive dentistry research and successful implementation of evidence-based oral health promotion policies, especially from developing countries; and *improve the quality of life of people worldwide through optimal oral health