Volume 24, Issue 105, September - October, 2020

Knowledge about Cancer Screening among Medical Students and Interns at University of Jeddah and King Abdul-Aziz University

Ahmed Hamed Aljahdali^1♦, Hisham Rizk², Mohammed Alsatti¹, Rayan Molawi¹, Raed Alharbi¹, Abdullah Alzahrani¹

¹Medical Student at University Of Jeddah, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
²Professor of General Surgery at University of Jeddah, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

^♦Corresponding author
Medical Student at University Of Jeddah, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Email: ahmed.h.aljahdali@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Background: Cancer screening has been a significant factor leading to reduce the burden of morbidity and death from cancer. Screening is described as presuming identification of an unknown disease with examinations, tests, or other methods that can be applied quickly and easily in a healthy asymptomatic population. Unfortunately, there is no proper focus on cancer screening and tumor markers in addition to the poor awareness about the importance of early detection of cancers. This study aims to evaluate Knowledge about Cancer Screening among medical students and interns at the University of Jeddah and King Abdulaziz University. Material and method: a cross-sectional study which was conducted from December 2019 to February 2020 among medical students and interns at the University of Jeddah and King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. By using a validated questionnaire, the questionnaire-based survey contained 15 questions and demographic data Distributed among medical students and interns to assess the knowledge regarding tumor markers, method of screening, initiation age of screening and frequency of screening. Result: a total of 212 participants included in the study, males were more than females (58.5% versus 41.5%). Participant's level of knowledge was poor (less than 50% had adequate knowledge). The best knowledge is shown in clinical years students (4th, 5th, 6th year) compare to pre-clinical (2nd, 3rd year) and interns, they have better knowledge in all types of cancer screening methods, the initiation age of screening and frequency. Conclusion: This study found that medical students and interns at the University of Jeddah and King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah have not received adequate knowledge and training in cancer screening modalities, Therefore, our recommendations for future researches are applying the study on many medical schools with different curricula, increasing the sample size, including post-graduate residents, and to increase the number of questions that is related to cancer screening.

Keywords: Cancer, morbidity and mortality, colorectal cancer, Pap smear

Medical Science, 2020, 24(105), 3447-3458

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