Knowledge and awareness about oral cancer in the community

El cáncer oral es la séptima causa de muerte en hombres y décima en mujeres en Europa, con una tasa de supervivencia en España del 53%. A pesar de ser la boca fácilmente accesible a la exploración, casi la mitad de estos cánceres se diagnostican en estadios avanzados. Objetivos: Investigar la alerta ante el cáncer oral en Galicia y el grado de conocimiento de sus factores de riesgo, signos y síntomas. Estudiar la información sobre cáncer oral disponible en línea y si ésta podría ser útil para disminuir el intervalo de toma de conciencia de los pacientes. Material y métodos: Estudio transversal comunitario sobre sujetos seleccionados aleatoriamente en las cuatro capitales gallegas en diferentes localizaciones en una suerte de método pathfinder. Estudio transversal realizado en tres repositorios de intercambio de vídeos usando las palabras clave cáncer de boca y cáncer oral. Resultados: 5.727 personas participaron en el estudio (tasa de respuesta 53%), principalmente entre los 45 y 64 años (30,2%; n=1.728), 47,7% de ellas fueron hombres (n=2.729).El cáncer oral se mencionó; por el 3% de los participantes como primera respuesta no evocada. 1.024 personas (17,95%) mostraron conocimiento activo sobre cáncer oral (no evocado). Conclusiones: La población general tiene un bajo grado de alerta y conocimiento sobre cáncer oral, sus factores de riesgo y signos de alarma. Son necesarias intervenciones educativas adecuadas para promover la prevención primaria del cáncer oral. Los recursos audiovisuales disponibles en línea sobre cáncer oral en español son incompletos

Oral cancer awareness in North-Western Spain:a population-based study

An early diagnosis depends greatly on patient awareness. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate general awareness of oral cancer and knowledge about its risk factors, signs and symptoms. Cross-sectional population-based survey of randomly selected respondents conducted from March 1, 2015 to 30 June 2016. A total of 5,727 people entered the survey (response rate: 53%). When asked what cancers participants had heard about, 20.3% mentioned oral cancer. Regarding risk factors, tobacco was mentioned by 55.3% of the sample (n=3,169), followed by alcohol (12.5%; n=708), poor oral hygiene (10.8%; n=618), diet (6.5%; n=377), and genetics (4.5%; n=248). General population has low awareness of oral cancer with poor knowledge of risk factors and main alarm signs. In addition, individuals in the risk group scored lower values in the main variables analysed; even those highly educated showed insufficient awareness and knowledge of oral cancer. In these circumstances, there is clear need for educational interventions tailored to the target audience and aimed at increasing knowledge and awareness of oral cancer to promote primary prevention of oral cancer and minimising the time interval of patients with symptomatic oral cancer in their path to treatment

People would rather see a physician than a dentist when experiencing a long-standing oral ulceration. A population-based study in Spain

Primary care physicians have been reported to be the first choice for patients with oral ulcerations. This study investigates the health-seeking behaviour of lay public in Galicia (North-western Spain) if experiencing a long-standing oral ulceration. Cross-sectional population-based survey of randomly selected respondents conducted from March 1, 2015 to 30 June 2016. A total of 5,727 pedestrians entered the study (response rate: 53%), mostly in the 45-64 age group (30.2%; n=1,728), 47.7% of them (n=2,729) were males. Most participants (42.1%; n=2,411) reported to visit their dentist once a year and had secondary or compulsory education as their highest educational achievement (28.18%, n=1,614; 28%, n=1,600 respectively). When questioned what they would do if they had a wound/ulceration lasting longer than 3 weeks, most participants answered they would go to see their primary care physician (62.8%; n=3,597) and less than one quarter of the sample (23.8%; n=1,371) would seek consultation with their dentist. General Galician population would seek professional consultation about a long-standing oral ulceration, relying mostly on primary care physicians. Those neglecting these lesions are elderly, less-schooled people and unaware of oral cancer

Online audio-visual information on oral cancer for Spanish-speaking laypersons. A cross-sectional study

Lack of knowledge and awareness of oral cancer seem to be the main causes of diagnostic delay. Online resources are often used by patients to obtain health/medical information. However, there are no reports on the quality and usefulness of oral cancer audio-visual resources in Spanish. The aims of this investigation were to disclose the type of information about oral cancer available, and whether it may be useful to shorten the patients? oral cancer appraisal time-interval. Cross-sectional study undertaken at three video-sharing sites on October, 13th 2019. Keywords: ?Cáncer oral?; ?cáncer de boca?. The first 100 results in each viewing list were retrieved by three reviewers. Demographical data was recorded, and interaction indexes, viewing rates, comprehensiveness, and usefulness were calculated for each video. The presence of non-scientifically supported information was also assessed. A descriptive analysis was undertaken, and relationships between variables were explored using the Spearman correlation test. A total of 127 videos were selected. They were produced mainly by mass-media (46.5%; n=59) and their length ranged from 0.28 to 105.38 minutes (median 4.15 minutes; IQR: 2.34-9.67). The most viewed video (10,599,765 views; visualization rate 726,508.9) scored 0 both in usefulness and comprehensiveness. The most useful video gathered 44,119 views (visualization rate 2.033.13). A highly significant positive correlation (0.643; p<0.001) could be observed between usefulness and comprehensiveness of the videos, together with negative correlations between the visualization rate and usefulness (-0.186; p<0.05), and visualization rate and comprehensiveness (-0.183; p<0.05). Online audio-visual material about oral cancer in Spanish is incomplete, of limited usefulness, and often includes non-scientifically supported information. Most of these resources are produced by mass media and healthcare professionals, with minor contributions from educational and healthcare institutions. Visualization rates negatively correlated with the usefulness and comprehensiveness of the contents in these digital objects