Knowledge and awareness about oral cancer among dental patients in Southeastern Anatolia

Aim: The aim of this study is to assess the levels of knowledge and awareness of dental patients in South-Eastern Anatolian on oralcancer.Material and Methods: This study conducted with 389 (209 females and 180 males) participants. Sociodemographic informationsuch as age, gender, education level, living place, smoking and alcohol use were obtained from dental patients. A questionnaireincluding early signs and risk factors related to the disease to assess the knowledge and awareness about oral cancer was performed.Obtained data were statistically analyzed with descriptive analyses, independent t sample test and ANOVA.Results: Only 23.1% of participants had heard of oral cancer. Smoking (95.5%), alcohol (68.7%) and tobacco use (67.9%) were the mostoften identified risk factors of oral cancer, whereas heavy sun exposure (12.1%) was the least defined factor. There was a statisticallysignificant difference between education level and living place for awareness of oral cancer (p < 0.05), while no significant differencewas found between gender, age and oral cancer (p > 0.05). As the source of the information for oral cancer, the television and internetwere the first while the medical doctors were the last.Conclusion: This study demonstrated that knowledge and awareness about the oral cancer were insufficient in South-EasternAnatolian. There is a substantial need to raise awareness of oral cancer, its risk factors, and early signs of the disease. Visual media,billboards and information leaflets may be useful for this issue.

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