Determining Adults' Attitudes towards Cancer Screening, Information Load, and Mythical Causes of Cancer.

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the attitudes of adults presenting to primary care services toward cancer screening, information overload, and mythical causes of cancer.

Design: Descriptive and correlational type study.

Methods: The research was conducted face-to-face with 702 adults. The data were collected using a personal information form, the Attitude Scale for Cancer Screening, Cancer Information Overload Scale, and Cancer Awareness Measure Mythical Causes Scale, and evaluated using multivariate analysis of variance.

Findings: It was determined that adults with chronic diseases, who did not have sufficient information about cancer, who did not have cancer screening, and who thought that cancer was a disease that could not be prevented, had low scores on attitudes towards cancer screening. It was found that adults who were male, literate, had no cancer screening and thought that cancer was an unpreventable disease had a high cancer knowledge burden. Adults who thought that cancer was an unpreventable disease and did not know the causes of cancer had a high rate of mythical causes of cancer.

Conclusions: It was determined that adults' attitudes toward cancer screening were negative, information overload was moderate, and awareness was at a low level.

Clinical evidence: Health promotion and promotion strategies should be developed to increase cancer screening and awareness for these groups, public awareness campaigns should be organized, and evidence-based structured interventions should be implemented. These recommended practices can positively influence adults' attitudes towards cancer screening, enable them to manage cancer information effectively, and help them understand the proven causes of cancer.