Abstract

ZANETTI, Fernanda; AZEVEDO, Mário Lúcio da Costa; PEREZ, Danyel Elias da Cruz  and  SILVA, Sílvio Rocha Corrêa da. Knowledge and risk factors of oral cancer in a prevention program for truck drivers. Odontol. Clín.-Cient. (Online) [online]. 2011, vol.10, n.3, pp. 233-236. ISSN 1677-3888.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the knowledge of driver truck about oral cancer, its risk factors, injuries and treatment of disease. The study was conducted by questionnaire with 776 people who participated in a health campaign in the state of Sao Paulo in 2009. The questionnaire had 17 questions, wich looked for to characterize the population of study in relation to the knowledge, the habits and the attitudes, as etiological factors, signs and symptoms, prevention, self-examination; visits to the dentist. The results showed that the mean age of participants was 42 years (± 10.1), with low education (63.1% with basic education). The majority (64.6%) had not received any guidance on oral cancer and only 32.1% had known to cite some of the probable causes of the disease. The suspect signs of disease were reported by 27.6% of the people and only 15.9% said knowing the mouth's self-examination. Results of this study suggested that it is important to carry out educational campaigns aimed at the prevention and early diagnosis of oral cancer, because the lack of information was high.

Keywords : Mouth neoplamy; Mouth; Disease Prevention; Self-examination..