Self-negligence and awareness among oral precancerous and cancer patients – A cross-sectional questionnaire study

BACKGROUND: The National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW) reports that India has the highest global prevalence of oral cancers. The incidence is significantly more in developing countries when compared to the developed countries. Early detection is key to increasing the survival rate of the patients. Important causes for this late diagnosis could be self-negligence, lack of patient awareness about the causes and asymptomatic and subtle clinical presentation of the lesions. AIM: To assess the causes of self-neglect and awareness levels among oral cancer and pre-cancerous patients. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted among pre-cancerous and cancerous patients. METHODS AND MATERIAL: A questionnaire with 16 closed-ended questions was framed relating to the causes of self-neglect and awareness of the patients. A total of 45 patients were selected by convenient sampling technique from the Institutional Tumour Board register of which 62 per cent were male patients and 38 per cent were female patients. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Data analysis for demographic data, patients' awareness, and causes of self-neglect about precancer and cancer was done using SPSS Version 10. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The present study concluded that the patients had adequate awareness that deleterious habits could lead to cancer but had a low level of awareness about the other causes of cancer, symptoms and management options available to treat cancer. The study result emphasizes that the government should plan for more cancer-screening camps in order to prevent the progression of cancer and to increase the awareness. (Reference I.D.: 2015-05006 for funding the project. ICMR)