Improving students' knowledge, attitude and practice towards cancer prevention through a health education program....

A health education program for cancer risk reduction was conducted among 649 students out of 896 for whom Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) had been obtained at the initial study. Three hundred and sixteen students acted as the intervented group and three hundred and thirty three were the control group. There was a great improvement in the percentage of correct knowledge answers in the majority of the questions from pre to post tests especially for the questions about the effect of excessive use of fatty foods (76.3%) and excessive use of salty foods (68.0%) on the occurrence of cancer. After the program, at least 87% or more of the students recognized the hazards of risky food, 86.1% knew that mothers who do not breast feed their infants have a greater chance of getting cancer breast, 51.3% responded correctly to the question about the effect of oral contraceptive pills after 40 years. More than 86% recognized the serious effect of prolonged exposure to the sun. A significant shift toward positive attitude was found especially with the item "I am very afraid to know that I have cancer, so I avoid going to the physician" (76.9%). It was found that 94% of the students agreed that there is a relation between the type of food and cancer. The students showed significant increases in median practice scores from pre to post tests and the larger gain associated with participants in the program (9.97%). The majority of the students reported increases in their daily consumption of fruits, cereals, leafy vegetables and salad. These significant changes in KAP scores from pre to post tests were noticed for both sexes, different social classes and different educational grades.