Knowledge and Beliefs about Smoking and Cancer among Women in Five European Countries

Abstract

Background: Lung cancer mortality in women is increasing across Europe, reflecting the alarming increase in smoking prevalence. Understanding women's perception of smoking may help to identify ways to reduce its prevalence and prevent uptake of smoking. The aim of this study was to examine factors associated with knowledge and beliefs about smoking and cancer among European women.Methods: A cross-sectional landline telephone survey on health attitudes and knowledge was conducted in five European countries: France, Ireland, Italy, the Czech Republic, and Sweden. A general linear modeling was used to explore the factors related to knowledge and beliefs about smoking and cancer.Results: A total of 5,000 women were interviewed (1,000 women from each country). The mean knowledge and belief scores about smoking and cancer were lower in current smokers than those of never and former smokers (P < 0.05). Women with above-the-median income (P = 0.001) and women who held skilled occupations seemed to be more knowledgeable about tobacco health risks (P < 0.001). The number of friends and family who smoked was inversely associated with knowledge on the harmful effects of tobacco (P = 0.001). Swedish women were the most knowledgeable about tobacco-related cancer risk, whereas in France and Italy, current smokers were less knowledgeable.Conclusions: Knowledge and beliefs about cancer and smoking varied significantly by smoking status. Impact: Results emphasize the need to develop health education programs that enhance cancer knowledge among women who currently smoke and are in low socioeconomic groups. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers

Awareness of Lung Cancer Symptoms and Risk Factors in General Population

“…However this is not a good indication of awareness as respondents can simply guess. Very similar finding was demonstrated in previous lung, breast and cervical cancer studies [7] [8] [9] [10].…”

“…Similar or somewhat lower cancer risks and symptoms awareness findings have been published in previous studies analysing lung cancer in UK [7] or Canada [8], breast cancer [9] or cervical cancer [10].…”

“…Not statistically significant, but a clear trend was seen that nonesmokers considered smoking to be more important risk factor than ex-smokers and current smokers (p = 0.057). Some previous studies conducted in other countries have shown connections between smoking status and awareness [9]. Walker et al analysed lung cancer risk factor awareness among persons with one or several risk factors [8].…”

Tobacco control environment: cross-sectional survey of policy implementation, social unacceptability, knowledge of tobacco health harms and relationship to quit ratio in 17 low-income, middle-income and high-income countries

“…Third the argument frequently used by the tobacco industry that everyone now knows the harmful effects of smoking is clearly not true in the global context, [44][45][46] given that only about half of the participants in LIC gave a majority of correct answers on the knowledge of health effects questions, compared with 94Á6% in HIC. While education on smoking harms may have reached a ceiling in HICs, the clear and linear trend demonstrated for increasing knowledge of health harms in the population studied here that was dominated by countries from low-income and middle-income regions, shows that promotion of knowledge of the adverse health effects of smoking is likely to be very important in these regions.…”

El cáncer de pulmón en mujeres

“…La prevención del inicio del tabaquismo debe ser una prioridad y las iniciativas en este sentido deben incluir la adolescencia. Entender la percepción de las mujeres hacia el tabaco puede ayudar a identificar maneras de reducir la prevalencia (Li et al, 2010).…”