Knowledge, attitude toward colorectal cancer and its screening methods in al hasa district of saudi arabia

Introduction: Colorectal cancer is one of the major public health problem throughout the world. However it is a preventable condition and mortality caused by this condition can be prevented by early diagnosis and prompt treatment. A good awareness, knowledge and attitude of the general population towards the colorectal carcinoma play a crucial role in controlling its prevalence. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study to assess the knowledge, attitude toward colorectal cancer and its screening methods in Al Hasa.
Material and methods: The sample size was450. Every third patient attending the primary health care center was selected for the study, Data were collected by Self-administered questionnaire. All the data were entered to excel sheet and analyzed using SPSS v. 20.The mean was used to estimate the continuous data. In addition, chi-square test was used to assess the associations between categorical outcomes and the variables, and t-test for continuous variables. The statistical significance level was maintained as P less than 0.05 during the entire analysis.
Results: Out of the four hundred and fifty participants, four hundred and three (403) participants completely answered the questionnaires and returned them back. The mean age was 35.50 years ± 12.5 SD. Majority were married (66.7%). Men outnumbered the women (53.8% vs. 46.2%). The subjects were mostly from university level (56.1%), followed by secondary school level (22.6%). The mean knowledge score was 13.81±4.93. Slightly more than half (51.7%) had low knowledge level. The mean knowledge score was significant about educational level in favor of the University level (P-value = 0.0001). Females had better knowledge than the males (p value 0.03).Marital status had no influence on the knowledge regarding CRC. The mean attitude score was 13.9057 ± 3.12 .The attitude was significant about educational level in favor of the University level (P-value = 0.001). Furthermore, attitude was significant among marital status groups in favor of married (P-value = 0.002).There was a significant positive relationship between knowledge and attitude (r = 0.116, P = 0.019)
Conclusion: This study has provided a crucial information on the knowledge and attitude of al hasa population of colorectal carcinoma which will help the ministry of health to formulate effective public awareness programme towards colorectal carcinoma.