Fear Despite Knowledge: Cancer Knowledge, Awareness, and Attitudes Among Health Sciences Students

Abstract

Cancer remains a major public health concern not only in terms of its medical burden but also because of the perceptions, fears, and attitudes it creates in society. This study aimed to evaluate cancer-related knowledge, awareness, attitudes, and behavioral tendencies among Faculty of Health Sciences students. Data were collected online and face-to-face from 336 volunteer students (245 females, 91 males) aged ≥ 18 who were able to read and understand Turkish. Participants completed the Cancer-Related Knowledge, Awareness, and Attitudes Form designed to assess cancer knowledge and attitudes. The mean cancer knowledge score of the students was 13.11±2.62. Although the overall knowledge level was relatively high, 74% of the participants reported fear of cancer. No significant association was found between fear of cancer and smoking or alcohol use, regular exercise, family history of cancer, or bereavement due to cancer (p>0.05). Furthermore, multivariable binary logistic regression analysis revealed that after adjusting for all potential confounders, gender was the sole independent predictor of cancer fear, with female students being 2.16 times more likely to experience this fear than males (adjusted OR = 2.16, 95% CI: 1.25–3.72, p = 0.006). Conversely, students who reported a fear of developing cancer demonstrated significantly higher knowledge scores than those without this fear (p