THE KNOWLEDGE OF ORAL CANCER AMONG HOUSE OFFICERS IN THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HOSPITAL, IBADAN

Abstract

Oral cancer is the 6th most common malignancy in the world and an important cause of morbidity and mortality with varying incidence according to geographical location, gender or age. The role of health care professionals particularly the medical practitioner in the diagnosis of oral cancer is important especially in the early stages when symptoms of malignancy are not florid, treatment is most effective and morbidity is minimal at this stage. There is the need for a high index of suspicion among medical doctors because most patients visit the medical practitioners who are more in number compared to dentists. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the knowledge and opinions of both dental and medical house officers in order to determine areas of deficiency in oral cancer knowledge. A cross-sectional survey of all the House officers in the employment of the University College Hospital, Ibadan between August 2011 and July 2012 was done. A total sample of 170 House officers were recruited in order to get a statistically significant number. A pretested semi structured, self-administered questionnaire was used to obtain information on socio-demographics, perceived and true knowledge of oral cancer and level of competency in the management of oral cancer. Likert scale was used to determine perceived knowledge level. Very well, well and reasonably informed were categorized as good knowledge level while poorly and not informed were categorized as poor knowledge level. True knowledge and competency level were assessed on 100% scale and scores of 50% and above were categorized as good knowledge and competent level and less than or equal to 49% as poor knowledge and competent level. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 15. A total of 170 respondents participated in the study, 58.5% were males and 41.2% were females. Majority (72.9%) of the respondents were medical doctors; overall mean age was 26.04; 72.4% obtained information about oral cancer from academic meetings; 62.1 % of the medical doctors obtained their information from a single source while 52.2% and 32.6% of the dentist had their information from double and multiple sources respectively. (X2 = 39.8; p-value <0.0001). It was also observed that 59.3% of the medical doctors claimed to be reasonably informed while 47.8% of the dentist claimed to be well informed (X2 = 30.9; p-value <0.0001). Assessment of true knowledge of oral cancer with respect to the knowledge of risk factors, 89.1 % the dentists and 58.9% of the medical doctors had good knowledge (X2 = 13.91; p-value < 0.0001). Majority of the respondents both medical doctors (71.8%) and dentists (76.1 %) had good knowledge on the clinical features of oral cancer. For knowledge of the preventive role of micronutrients on oral cancer and approach to management, it was generally a poor outcome. Overall, the relationship between true and perceived knowledge of respondents was a positive but very weak association (R = 0.167; X2 = 5.495; p-value = 0.240). Educators need to place more emphasis on oral cancer education and training of undergraduate medical and dental students