Abstract
Background: Skin cancer is the second cause of death in the developed and the third cause in the developing countries. This study aimed to determine the Knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of students of Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences about skin cancer.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive-analytic study was conducted on 375 of the students of Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences. The data was collected by a questionnaire consisted of four sections (demographic information Knowledge (22 questions), attitudes (13 questions), and behaviors (7 questions). The highest and the lowest gained scores by the students was 37-0 and one point was granted to each true answer. The attitudes questions were ordered by the 3-points Likert scale that the lowest and the highest gained scores were 13-39, and the range of the behavior score was 0-21. The data were statistically analyzed via SPSS version 19 using descriptive tests, T-Test and analysis of variance.
Results: Our finding showed that 54.7 % of the participants were women and 45.3 % were men. The mean age of the women and men were 22.8±1.77 and 21.94±1.89 respectively. From the Knowledge point of view, 54.8 % was low, 38.4% medium and 4.8 % high. From the attitude point of view, 0.3 % was low, 70.4 medium and 29.3 % high. Also, from the behavior point of view, 41.6% and 58.4 % were low and medium respectively.
Conclusion: According to the results, it is recommended to set-up appropriate schedules in students’ curriculum to recognize and control the common type of cancer in our country. It is hoped that these educations will improve the Knowledge, and in consequence improve the attitude as well as behavior.