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Knowledge, attitudes, and preventive practices about colorectal cancer among adults in an area of Southern Italy

BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer for both sexes in developed countries. This study assessed the knowledge, attitudes, and preventive practices regarding CRC of adults in Italy. METHODS: A random sample of 1165 adults received a self-administered questi...

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Autores principales: Sessa, Alessandra, Abbate, Rossella, Di Giuseppe, Gabriella, Marinelli, Paolo, Angelillo, Italo F
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2008
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2474634/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18547435
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2407-8-171
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author Sessa, Alessandra
Abbate, Rossella
Di Giuseppe, Gabriella
Marinelli, Paolo
Angelillo, Italo F
author_facet Sessa, Alessandra
Abbate, Rossella
Di Giuseppe, Gabriella
Marinelli, Paolo
Angelillo, Italo F
author_sort Sessa, Alessandra
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer for both sexes in developed countries. This study assessed the knowledge, attitudes, and preventive practices regarding CRC of adults in Italy. METHODS: A random sample of 1165 adults received a self-administered questionnaire on socio-demographic characteristics; knowledge regarding definition, risk factors, and screening; attitudes regarding perceived risk of contracting CRC and utility of screening tests; health-related behaviors and health care use; source of information. RESULTS: Only 18.5% knew the two main modifiable risk factors (low physical activity, high caloric intake from fat) and this knowledge was significantly associated with higher educational level, performing physical activity, modification of dietary habits and physical activity for fear of contracting CRC, and lower risk perception of contracting CRC. Half of respondents identified fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) as main test for CRC prevention and were more knowledgeable those unmarried, more educated, who knew the main risk factors of CRC, and have received advice by physician of performing FOBT. Personal opinion that screening is useful for CRC prevention was high with a mean score of 8.3 and it was predicted by respondents' lower education, beliefs that CRC can be prevented, higher personal perceived risk of contracting CRC, and information received by physician about CRC. An appropriate behavior of performing FOBT if eligible or not performing if not eligible was significantly higher in female, younger, more educated, in those who have been recommended by physician for undergo or not undergo FOBT, and who have not personal history of precancerous lesions and familial history of precancerous lesions or CRC. CONCLUSION: Linkages between health care and educational systems are needed to improve the levels of knowledge and to raise CRC screening adherence.
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spelling pubmed-24746342008-07-17 Knowledge, attitudes, and preventive practices about colorectal cancer among adults in an area of Southern Italy Sessa, Alessandra Abbate, Rossella Di Giuseppe, Gabriella Marinelli, Paolo Angelillo, Italo F BMC Cancer Research Article BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer for both sexes in developed countries. This study assessed the knowledge, attitudes, and preventive practices regarding CRC of adults in Italy. METHODS: A random sample of 1165 adults received a self-administered questionnaire on socio-demographic characteristics; knowledge regarding definition, risk factors, and screening; attitudes regarding perceived risk of contracting CRC and utility of screening tests; health-related behaviors and health care use; source of information. RESULTS: Only 18.5% knew the two main modifiable risk factors (low physical activity, high caloric intake from fat) and this knowledge was significantly associated with higher educational level, performing physical activity, modification of dietary habits and physical activity for fear of contracting CRC, and lower risk perception of contracting CRC. Half of respondents identified fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) as main test for CRC prevention and were more knowledgeable those unmarried, more educated, who knew the main risk factors of CRC, and have received advice by physician of performing FOBT. Personal opinion that screening is useful for CRC prevention was high with a mean score of 8.3 and it was predicted by respondents' lower education, beliefs that CRC can be prevented, higher personal perceived risk of contracting CRC, and information received by physician about CRC. An appropriate behavior of performing FOBT if eligible or not performing if not eligible was significantly higher in female, younger, more educated, in those who have been recommended by physician for undergo or not undergo FOBT, and who have not personal history of precancerous lesions and familial history of precancerous lesions or CRC. CONCLUSION: Linkages between health care and educational systems are needed to improve the levels of knowledge and to raise CRC screening adherence. BioMed Central 2008-06-11 /pmc/articles/PMC2474634/ /pubmed/18547435 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2407-8-171 Text en Copyright © 2008 Sessa et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Sessa, Alessandra
Abbate, Rossella
Di Giuseppe, Gabriella
Marinelli, Paolo
Angelillo, Italo F
Knowledge, attitudes, and preventive practices about colorectal cancer among adults in an area of Southern Italy
title Knowledge, attitudes, and preventive practices about colorectal cancer among adults in an area of Southern Italy
title_full Knowledge, attitudes, and preventive practices about colorectal cancer among adults in an area of Southern Italy
title_fullStr Knowledge, attitudes, and preventive practices about colorectal cancer among adults in an area of Southern Italy
title_full_unstemmed Knowledge, attitudes, and preventive practices about colorectal cancer among adults in an area of Southern Italy
title_short Knowledge, attitudes, and preventive practices about colorectal cancer among adults in an area of Southern Italy
title_sort knowledge, attitudes, and preventive practices about colorectal cancer among adults in an area of southern italy
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2474634/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18547435
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2407-8-171
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