Evaluation of the level of knowledge about cancer prevention and early screening methods in healthcare workers

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to investigate the effect of planned training of healthcare workers to increase awareness of cancer prevention and early screening programmes.Material and methods: In our cancer early diagnosis training, a questionnaire with 15 questions was applied to 60 healthcare workers on the awareness of cancer prevention and early screening programmes. Three male and fifty-seven female healthcare workers who participated in the training were included in the study. Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Mann-Whitney U test have been used to investigate the effect of the training on healthcare workers.Results: Following the 15-question questionnaire administered to 60 healthcare workers, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed that the median correct response in the pre-education test was 12, while the median correct response in the post-education test was 13, which was statistically significant (p=0.00). The median correct answer was 12 in the pre-education test in women and 8 in the pre-education test in men (p=0.02). The number of correct answers was significantly higher between men and women in the pre-education test in favour of women. The post-education test median response was 13 in women and 11 in men (p=0.13). No statistical significance was found between pre-education test and post-education test according to age, educational status, nurses and other healthcare workers.Conclusion: It was found that the level of knowledge increased statistically significantly with information about cancer early diagnosis methods and prevention methods in healthcare workers working in the hospital. It was seen that the level of knowledge increased more in male healthcare workers with cancer information training. Utilisation of new tests such as fecal immunochemical testing (FITs) in colorectal cancer, screening with low dose thorax CT (LDCT) in lung cancer and autofluorescence imaging bronchoscopy (AFI), narrow band imaging bronchoscopy (NBI) increases the diagnosis of cancer at early stages.