Knowledge of university students about oral cancer

Abstract

The knowledge about oral cancer prevention and causes is important. Oral cancer detection is relatively easy due to its anatomic location. Equally, the risk factors for this disease can be easily identified by the anamnesis and is related to the patient's lifestyle. The aim of this study was to evaluate university students' knowledge about oral cancer and its causes in Curitiba/PR. Three hundred female and male university adult students were randomly interviewed. A questionnaire using opened and closed questions was employed. 259 (86,3%) of the individuals answered they knew that cancer could develop in the mouth, and 117 (39%) of the individuals said knew about precursor lesions of oral cancer. Smoking tobacco (69,3%), poor oral hygiene (20,3%) and radiation exposure (10,6%) were the most probable risk factors according to the participants. Alcohol, which is considered a promoter agent, was known to be a risk factor for only 22 (8%) individuals. When questioned about the treatment, 113 (37,6%) individuals said that would look for a dentist if they had a suspicion of oral cancer. According to these results, it was concluded that a significant number of university students was aware of the risk factors involved into oral cancer pathogenesis. This work also reinforces the need to introduce preventive measures to propagate this information to the university students.