A telephone survey of cancer awareness among frontline staff: informing training needs
2011

Cancer Awareness Among Frontline Staff

Sample size: 671 publication Evidence: moderate

Author Information

Author(s): Cook N, Hart A, Nuttall K, Simpson K, Turnill N, Grant-Pearce C, Damms P, Allen V, Slade K, Dey P

Primary Institution: University of Central Lancashire

Hypothesis

What is the level of cancer awareness among frontline community-based health and social care staff?

Conclusion

Cancer awareness is generally good among frontline staff, but important gaps exist that could be improved with targeted education and training.

Supporting Evidence

  • Over 92% of staff recognized most warning signs of cancer.
  • Only 61.8% of staff were aware of the bowel cancer-screening program.
  • Smoking was recognized as a risk factor by 98.2% of participants.

Takeaway

Most health workers know about cancer warning signs, but some important signs are still not recognized, so they need better training.

Methodology

A cross-sectional computer-assisted telephone survey of 4664 frontline community-based health and social care staff.

Potential Biases

Participants may provide socially desirable responses due to the nature of the survey.

Limitations

The very low response rate limits the generalizability of the results.

Participant Demographics

{"gender":{"female":85.5,"male":14.5},"age":{"18-24":9.8,"25-34":20.1,"35-44":19.8,"45-54":32.0,"55-64":15.1,"65+":0.9},"ethnicity":{"white":92.1,"non-white":6.4},"educational_attainment":{"group_1":37.9,"group_2":42.9,"group_3":16.5}}

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1038/bjc.2011.258

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