Abstract

Background: Cancer is one of the major causes of mortality. The awareness about cancer and its prevention may be as important as its treatment or even more. Our aim was to assess the level of awareness of the Saudi society about the role of food with chemoprotective agents in cancer prevention.
Methods: In our cross-sectional study, online questionnaires were filled out by the respondents through social media. The required sample size was 1,068 and it included Saudis who are living in Saudi Arabia and were between the ages of 18 and 60 years. The socio-demographic characteristics of the participants, including age, gender, educational level, occupation, and relationship to medical field, were reported and compared using descriptive statistics.
Results: The results showed that nearly half (51.6%) of the respondents had excellent or good knowledge about the role of food in cancer prevention. In addition, the percentages of those with fair and poor knowledge among those with no university degrees were significantly higher. This deficit in knowledge indicates that more effort is required to raise awareness about the role of food with anti-carcinogenic properties among the population.
Conclusion: The majority of the respondents used social media and internet as a major source of knowledge; thus, social media appears to be a good platform for increasing the awareness of the Saudi population about the role of food in cancer prevention.

Key words: Prevention, awareness, chemoprotective, cancer, Saudi