Hu HT, Jiang YJ, Shao XX, Lu YM, Tian YT, Xu Q. Investigation and analysis of the status of cancer health popularization in China, 2023. World J Clin Oncol 2024; 15(10): 1269-1279 [DOI: 10.5306/wjco.v15.i10.1269]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Quan Xu, MD, Chief Doctor, Department of Pancreatic and Gastric Surgery, National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, No. 17 Panjiayuan Nanli, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100021, China. 64804070@qq.com
Research Domain of This Article
Health Policy & Services
Article-Type of This Article
Observational Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Hai-Tao Hu, Yu-Juan Jiang, Xin-Xin Shao, Yi-Ming Lu, Yan-Tao Tian, Quan Xu, Department of Pancreatic and Gastric Surgery, National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100021, China
Co-corresponding authors: Yan-Tao Tian and Quan Xu.
Author contributions: Hu HT collected data and drafted the manuscript; Jiang YJ performed the data analysis and revised the manuscript; Shao XX and Lu YM contributed to manuscript preparation data for the work; Tian YT and Xu Q conceived the work that led to the submission and approved the final version; Hu HT and Jiang YJ contribute equally to this work as co-first authors, and Tian YT and Xu Q are co-corresponding authors; all authors issued final approval for the version to be submitted.
Supported byNational Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82072734.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by Institutional Review Board of the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was obtained from all the participants prior to the enrollment of this study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Quan Xu, MD, Chief Doctor, Department of Pancreatic and Gastric Surgery, National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, No. 17 Panjiayuan Nanli, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100021, China. 64804070@qq.com
Received: August 13, 2024 Revised: September 13, 2024 Accepted: September 14, 2024 Published online: October 24, 2024 Processing time: 47 Days and 1.3 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Cancer presents a significant public health challenge in China, necessitating broad collaboration across society. The Chinese government has articulated a goal to increase the overall five-year survival rate for cancer by 15% by 2030. Achieving this objective requires not only advances in medical technology, but also an improvement in the dissemination of knowledge pertaining to cancer prevention and treatment.
AIM
To provide a comprehensive understanding of the status of cancer prevention and level of popularization in China in 2023.
METHODS
From January 2023 to May 2023, online questionnaires were distributed to 3000 participants, including medical personnel, patients with cancer, their families, and the general public. There were 2711 valid responses, covering the entire nation.
RESULTS
A total of 1020 medical personnel and 1691 patients with cancer, their family members, and the general public participated in the survey. Among medical personnel, 93.2% had popularized cancer health. Commonly addressed topics included cancer prevention (85.9%) and cancer screening (77.8%). Primary challenges included time constraints (73.9%), insufficient personnel and material support (66.7%), and uncertainty as to where to begin (49.3%). Among patients with cancer, their family members, and the general public, 93.4% reported reading or watching cancer science popularization materials and 56.9% expressed a desire for deeper understanding. The most sought-after topics in cancer science popularization included cancer screening (80.2%) and cancer prevention (75.8%). The greatest challenge encountered in accessing cancer health popularization was an abundance of misinformation (67.5%).
CONCLUSION
Most clinical doctors, patients, family, and the general public wish to participate in cancer education. However, improvement in the quality of content in cancer prevention and treatment education is required.
Core Tip: Cancer poses a significant threat to the health and lives of the Chinese population. Therefore, enhancing public awareness of cancer health is of paramount importance. Prior to this study, there has been no investigation of the status of cancer health education in China. Through the distribution of random questionnaires across 31 provinces in China, 1020 healthcare professionals and 1691 patients with cancer, their family members, and the general public participated. Most participants expressed a strong willingness to participate in cancer health education. Therefore, improvement in the quality of cancer health education is required.
