Non-medical university students are not more knowledgeable than general population concerning serious diseases

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to know the level of awareness of non-medical university students of risk factors and symptoms of colorectal cancer.Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted at Al Baha University among non-medical students between 1st of May and 30th of June 2017.Results: The study comprised (n=463) students. Smoking and sedentary life as risk factors to CRC was known by (55.3%) and (51.0%) respectively. less than half (42%) knew that alcohol is a risk factor. The vast majority of our students (68.7%) had known that fruits and vegetables can decrease the incidence of CRC. The symptoms of CRC that more recognized by participants were abdominal pain (43.2%) and bleeding per rectum(45.5%).Conclusions: We concluded that the overall knowledge of non-medical University students concerning the awareness of risk factors and symptomatology of colorectal cancer is poor and nearly similar to general population knowledge concerning this problem.