EVALUATION OF STUDENTS' UNDERSTANDING ABOUT BREAST AND CERVICAL CANCER IN A MUNICIPALITY OF MARANHÃO

Abstract

Introduction: Cancer is the fourth leading cause of death, resulting in a major public health problem in the world, and one of the most incident types in women in all Brazilian regions is breast cancer (29.7%) and cervical cancer (7.4%). In recent years, a large number of cases has increased, due to the increase in population, internal and external risk factors together with socioeconomic conditions. Objective: To assess the knowledge of high school students about risk factors and prevention of breast and cervical cancer. Material and Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive field study by extensive direct observation, questionnaire, conducted in the city of São Bento -MA. After the consent of those responsible, after signing the Informed Consent Term (TCLE) and the Informed Consent Term (TALE) by the students, the questionnaire was applied. Data collection was carried out from May to June 2019 and 202 adolescents participated in the survey. The collected data were organized in spreadsheets in Excel 2016 for windows, transferred to the GraphPad Prism 5.0 and STATA 14.0 software and analyzed using descriptive statistics, evaluating the frequency distribution for each question.[1]

Results: There sults demonstrate partial information about breast and cervical cancer, justified by low income, low level of education of parents and little demand from health professionals. Conclusion: Therefore, this study is essential to awaken municipal and state public policies and create a partnership between the Municipal and State Secretariats for the provision of resources and strategies in the prevention of breast cancer and cervical cancer, as it is evident while these students need information.