TELEHEALTH STRATEGIES IN ORAL CANCER PREVENTION

OBJECTIVES: The challenges being faced by the public health systems in the struggle against oral cancer (OC) have been aggravated by the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. This problem calls out the need for alternative solutions. The aim of this paper was to analyze studies that describe telehealth (TH) strategies in the prevention of OC. STUDY DESIGN: After elaborating the guiding question: “How can telehealth contribute to OC prevention?” searches were carried out in the PubMed, Scielo, and LILACS databases using descriptors from DeCS and MeSH. Once eligibility criteria were defined, the titles and abstracts were analyzed. Then, the selected articles were fully read to compose the final sample. The interpretation of the findings and the quality of the studies were assessed according to the level of evidence. RESULTS: Of the 12 articles selected, 83.33% were published between the years 2017 and 2020. India was the country that most researched the topic (58.33%). Regarding the levels of evidence, 83.33% were classified as level VI. CONCLUSIONS: The investigated studies confirm that telehealth strategies have the potential to effectively contribute to the prevention of OC, promoting, in the long term, a reduction in morbidity and mortality rates and increase in survival rates.