Public knowledge of cancer in southern Poland

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15584/ejcem.2025.1.24

Keywords:

cancer knowledge, cancer prevention, health education, southern Poland

Abstract

Introduction and aim. Due to the constantly growing number of cancer cases in Polish society, our study aimed to check the respondents’ knowledge of the broadly understood topic of cancer. The aim was to check the knowledge of Polish society and compare it according to age, gender, level of education, place of residence, and marital status.

Material and methods. Our study was held in Podkarpackie and Malopolskie voivodeiship where participants completed a questionnaire containing 31 questions on the topic of cancer. The survey was completed by 360 people, 248 women, and 112 men. The study locations were diverse and the interviewees came from different backgrounds, age groups, and education.

Results. The study revealed generally high awareness of cancer among 360 respondents, with 93% of whom recognized the importance of early detection, but significant gaps were identified in knowledge about prevention methods, including vaccina tions (36%) and viral causes (50%). Older adults and those with lower educational levels showed significantly lower awareness (p<0.05), highlighting the need for targeted educational initiatives.

Conclusion. The survey we conducted clearly shows that the state of knowledge about cancer in Polish society is not yet fully sat isfactory. The conclusion that arises from our survey concerns the dissemination of knowledge about primary cancer prevention.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Hausman DM. What Is Cancer? Perspect Biol Med. 2019; 62(4):778-784. doi: 10.1353/pbm.2019.0046

Wojciechowska U, Barańska K, Miklewska M, Didkowska JA. Cancer incidence and mortality in Poland in 2020. Nowotwory. 2023;73(3):129-145. doi: 10.5603/NJO.2021.0022

Koczkodaj P, Michalek IM. Cancer screenings in Poland. A call to the new government and health minister for informed leadership. Eur J Cancer. 2024;198:113526. doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2024.113526

Wojciechowska U, Barańska K, Michałek I, Olasek P, Miklewska M, Didkowska AJ. Nowotwory złośliwe w Polsce w 2020 roku. Witryna Narodowego Instytutu Onkologii w Warszawie. Published 2022. https://onkologia.org.pl/sites/default/files/publications/2023-01/nowotwory_2020.pdf. Accessed January 2024.

OECD. Krajowe profile dotyczące nowotworów: Polska 2023. OECD Publishing; 2023. doi: 10.1787/aab579a7-pl

Stubbings S, Robb K, Waller J, et al. Development of a measurement tool to assess public awareness of cancer. Br J Cancer. 2009;101:13-17. doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6605385.

Wardle J, Waller J, Brunswick N, Jarvis MJ. Awareness of risk factors for cancer among British adults. Public Health. 2001;115(3):173-174. doi: 10.1038/sj/ph/1900752.

Stępień R, Zdziebło K, Wiraszka G, Zboina B, Sławek K. Wiedza młodzieży licealnej na temat palenia tytoniu jako czynnika ryzyka raka płuc i jego terapii. Polish Journal of Health and Fitness. 2015;1:1-12.

El Rhazi K, Bennani B, El Fakir S, et al. Public awareness of cancer risk factors in the Moroccan population: A population-based cross-sectional study. BMC Cancer. 2014;14:695. doi: 10.1186/1471-2407-14-695

Cancer prevention: Putting it together. American Institute for Cancer Research. https://www.aicr.org/reduce-your-cancer-risk/cancer-prevention. Published February 20, 2013. Accessed August 10, 2013.

Wojciechowska U, Didkowska J. Zachorowania i zgony na nowotwory złośliwe w Polsce. Krajowy Rejestr Nowotworów, Centrum Onkologii – Instytut im. Marii Skłodowskiej-Curie. http://onkologia.org.pl/dieta/. Accessed August 10, 2013.

Smelik-Markiewicz A, Bazan A, Krawczyk M, Boratyn-Nowicka A. The knowledge of cancer and attitudes associated with the issue among youth and young adults aged 15-30. Psychoonkologia. 2016;20(4):191-196. doi:10.5114/pson.2016.66291.

Harms of cigarette smoking and health benefits of quitting. National Cancer Institute. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/tobacco/cessation-fact-sheet. Accessed August 10, 2013.14. Jassem J, Krzakowski M. Nowotwory klatki piersiowej: Praktyczny przewodnik dla lekarzy. Gdańsk: Via Medica;2013.

Raczkowska-Siostrzonek A, Pogorzelska-Stronczak B. Profilaktyka nowotworów złośliwych ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem raka jamy ustnej. Czas Stomat. 2005;58:9.

Strycharz-Dudziak M, Polz-Dacewicz M, Gołabek W, Swietlicki M, Kupisz K. Cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption in patients with oral cancer. Przegl Lek. 2009;66(10):722-726.

Schiffman JD, Fisher PG, Gibbs P. Early detection of cancer: Past, present, and future. Am Soc Clin Oncol Educ Book. 2015:57-65. doi: 10.14694/EdBook_AM.2015.35.57

Schiller JT, Lowy DR. Vaccines to prevent infections by oncoviruses. Annu Rev Microbiol. 2010;64:23-41. doi: 10.1146/annurev.micro.112408.134019

HPV vaccination. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/hpv/vaccines/index.html. Published August 20, 2024. Accessed September 3, 2024.

Cutts FT, Franceschi S, Goldie S, et al. Human papillomavirus and HPV vaccines: A review. Bull World Health Organ. 2007;85(9):719-726. doi: 10.2471/BLT.06.038414

Gerlich WH. Medical virology of hepatitis B: How it began and where we are now. Virol J. 2013;10:239. doi: 10.1186/1743-422X-10-239

Global Cancer Observatory: Cancer Today (version 1.1). International Agency for Research on Cancer. https://gco.iarc.who.int/tomorrow. Accessed August 10, 2024.

Crosby D, Bhatia S, Brindle KM, et al. Early detection of cancer. Science. 2022;375(6586):eay9040. doi: 10.1126/science.aay9040

Mazur P, Kuśmierz M, Kwiatkowska K, et al. The knowledge of students attending selected higher education institutions in Lublin on cervical cancer prevention. J Educ Health Sport. 2017;7(7):200-214. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.825342

Goldstone SE. Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines in adults: Learnings from long-term follow-up of quadrivalent HPV vaccine clinical trials. Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2023;19(1):e2184760. Doi: 10.1080/21645515.2023.2184760

Downloads

Published

2025-03-30

How to Cite

Sokołowska, A., Antoszewska, A., Jasiewicz, M., Słoma, P., Skrzynecka, S., Lasek, A., Lubas, C., Florek, J., Zacher, K., Kalinowska, J., Znamirowska, K., Michalik, J., Wąchała, K., & Sas-Korczyńska, B. (2025). Public knowledge of cancer in southern Poland. European Journal of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, 23(1), 190–196. https://doi.org/10.15584/ejcem.2025.1.24

Issue

Vol. 23 No. 1 (2025)

Section

ORIGINAL PAPERS

License

Copyright (c) 2025 European Journal of Clinical and Experimental Medicine

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Our open access policy is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition: this means that articles have free availability on the public Internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from having access to the Internet itself.

All articles are published with free open access under the CC-BY Creative Commons attribution license (the current version is CC-BY, version 4.0). If you submit your paper for publication by the Eur J Clin Exp Med, you agree to have the CC-BY license applied to your work. Under this Open Access license, you, as the author, agree that anyone may download and read the paper for free. In addition, the article may be reused and quoted provided that the original published version is cited. This facilitates freedom in re-use and also ensures that Eur J Clin Exp Med content can be mined without barriers for the research needs.

Most read articles by the same author(s)