Background: Colorectal Cancer (CRC) is the third most common malignancy in males and the second most common malignancy in females worldwide. This study aims at planning targeted educational programs to raise the awareness of CRC and its risk factors, through assessing the knowledge about CRC and its risk factors in the population of Madinah, Saudi Arabia.
Methodology: A cross-sectional study was carried out in Madinah, Saudi Arabia involving study subjects approached by a 25 multiple-choice question-survey about CRC. The results were analyzed according to demographic data to determine the different levels of knowledge and associated risk factors.
Results: Among the total of 385 study participants, more than half of them were males, 18-29 years old subjects constituted 44.2% and undergraduates constituted 54%. Regarding the knowledge score, the highest score by the participants was 8, and 53.4% of them were with a score of 2-3. At least 64.3% of the participant had two or three risk factors for CRC. The most common risk factor found was eating red meat with 61.5%.
Conclusion: Overall, the knowledge about CRC in Madinah was found poor. The higher the education level and income, the higher was the knowledge regarding CRC among the study subjects. With the increase in financial income and education level, there was a decrease in the number of CRC risk factors, the opposite was found in relation to age.
Key words: Colorectal cancer, awareness, risk factors, Madinah
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