TITLE:
Cancer: Education and Primary Prevention Starts in Childhood and Adolescence
AUTHORS:
Nadja Seidel, Friederike Stoelzel, Sandra Herrmann, Cornelia Zimmermann, Hendrik Berth, Melanie Glausch, Kristina Loewe, Michael Baumann, Gerhard Ehninger
KEYWORDS:
Cancer Prevention, Cancer Education, Health Behavior, School-Based Health Promotion, Literacy
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Cancer Therapy,
Vol.7 No.12,
November
4,
2016
ABSTRACT: At
least one third of all newly diagnosed cancers could be prevented if lifestyle
factors were changed. The University Cancer Center Dresden initiated two
programs aiming at cancer awareness and intentions to engage in
health-promoting behavior among children and adolescents. Study 1 examined sun
protection knowledge of 80 preschool children in a non-randomized design and
Study 2 inspected 235 7th grade students’ knowledge of cancer and its behavioral risk-factors
as well as intentions on health-promoting behavior using a randomized pre-post
design on group-level. Study 1 showed significant improvement of sun protection
knowledge in preschool children (p 0.05). Study 2 was effective in increasing knowledge
about risk factors for cancer (p 0.001) and in increasing intentions to engage in
health-promoting behavior (p 0.001). Communicating health-related behavior in
preschools as well as school-based programs targeting multiple cancer-related
risk factors are promising tools for primary prevention of cancer.