The awareness and knowledge on oral cancer and its relation towards smoking habit among non-medical background students

Oral cancer remains as a worldwide health issue. In Malaysia, oral neoplasm contributed about 10.6% death at the government hospitals. The significant consequences of delaying referral and poor prognosis of oral cancer was mainly due to the lack of knowledge among public. This study aims to determine the level of awareness and knowledge on oral cancer among students with non-medical background in Kepala Batas, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia. A cross sectional study using questionnaires were conducted among systematically randomly selected 275 non-medical background students aged 18 years old and above. The association of smoking habit with oral cancer awareness and knowledge was evaluated using chi-square test. Factors associated with the knowledge were determined at both univariable and multivariable levels using simple logistic and multiple logistic regression analyses respectively. Oral cancer awareness level was high among the students (85%) even though knowledge on early signs of oral cancer was low (<37%). Students aged >19 years old has 1.96 time the odds compared to students <= 19 aged to have poor knowledge while Malay has 4.28 time the odds compared to Indian to have poor knowledge. Although smoking was observed as the most recognisable risk factor of oral cancer (82%), the smoking prevalence was relatively high (46.9%). The smokers in this study had low awareness and knowledge on oral cancer compared to the non-smoker. Hence, preventive measures adopting knowledge transfer should be proposed to enhance individual awareness and knowledge on oral cancer with Smoking cessation programme to help the smoker to quit smoking.