Colorectal Cancer Awareness and Related Factors Among Adults Attending Primary Healthcare in North-Eastern of Iran: A Cross-sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most prevalent cancer in Iran. This study aimed to assess the level of awareness regarding CRC warning signs, risk factors, screening program, and related factors among adults in North-Eastern Iran. Study Design: A cross-sectional study. METHODS: The multi-stage sampling method was used to survey 2614 participants attending primary healthcare centers in Mashhad, Iran. The data collection tools were the demographics section and Bowel/ CRC Awareness Measure (Bowel/Colorectal CAM). The data were analyzed by SPSS, version 25. The significance level of the data analysis was less than 0.05. RESULTS: Mean awareness for CRC warning signs and CRC risk factors were 2.85±2.13 and 3.63±1.85, respectively. Most participants (97.2%) had no awareness of the CRC screening program. There was a significant association between marital status, education, job, income, and family history of CRC with awareness of warning signs (P<0.001); moreover, there was a significant association between age, education, job, income, and family history of CRC with awareness of risk factors (P<0.001). The results of logistic regression indicated that there was a significant association between age (P=0.022, OR=1.794, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.087, 2.962), gender (P=0.005, OR=0.488, 95% CI: 0.296, 0.803) and warning sign awareness (P<0.001, OR=1.278, 95% CI: 1.124, 1.454) with awareness of the CRC screening program. CONCLUSION: In this study, most of the participants had low awareness of CRC. More aimed educational interventions are needed to promote Iranian adults' awareness of CRC.

Assessment of health literacy with the Newest Vital Sign and its correlation with body mass index in female adolescent students.

Background One of the significant outcomes of health education is health literacy (HL), which should be expanded to improve health promotion. Objective The aim of this study was to assess HL and its relationship with Body Mass Index (BMI) in female adolescent students. Subjects This study was conducted on 235 female students (aged 13-15 years) which were selected with cluster sampling. Methods For assessing HL, the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) was used and BMI Z-score was evaluated following the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16. Results Based on this study's results, 11.5%, 37% and 51.5% of adolescents had adequate HL, limited HL and inadequate HL, respectively. There was a negative correlation between adolescents HL and BMI, rs = -0.233 (p < 0.001). Conclusion Most of adolescents had limited HL and students with higher BMI had a worse HL score. As a matter of fact, as adequate HL has a significant role for promoting health in the society policy makers must design educational programs for adolescents especially in non-medical settings such as schools where adolescents spend most of their time.