Egyptian General Population Knowledge and Awareness Toward Oral Cancer: A Cross-Sectional Study

The present study aims to provide a thorough assessment of the level of knowledge and awareness of oral cancer among a general population of Egyptians and at correlating the main risk factors associated with the level of knowledge.

One thousand twenty-eight questionnaires were distributed to the general public at 10 public places located in Cairo, Egypt. Questionnaire results were summarized via descriptive statistics followed by correlation which was performed on the answers to different questions.

The overall knowledge of oral cancer among a population of Egyptian public was not strong, with 40% scoring 6-8 out of the maximum score 17. Only 14% of the participants acquired their knowledge from a healthcare provider. However, 47.2% did not know the symptoms of oral cancer. By common sense, 811 knew that tobacco is one of the causes of oral cancer.

The Egyptian population demonstrated a low knowledge of oral cancer, a finding that is supported by the results of many previous studies conducted on other populations. This finding was significantly influenced by a sociodemographic factor, that is, a higher level of education and young age. Therefore, educational programs and specialized departments are recommended to work on providing and imparting deeper knowledge of oral cancer.