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Cancer awareness among frontline staff

Author: Neil Cook
Institution: University of Central Lancashire
Type of case study: Research

About the research

This project was designed to investigate awareness among community-based NHS and social care staff of the warning signs and symptoms of cancer, cancer screening programmes and cancer risk factors – and then to use the findings to inform the development of and, consequently, the effectiveness of educational training.

The findings show that awareness of cancer warning signs is generally good among this group – and higher than the general public – however important gaps still exist, particularly low awareness of cancer risk factors.

These gaps might be improved by targeted education and training and through developing clearer messages.

The results of this study have already informed local training resources in northwest England. The findings have also been shared nationally through the National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative website.

Methodology

Data from the Cancer Awareness Measures were used to perform a weighted analysis, allowing a comparison between frontline staff and the general public in terms of their levels of cancer awareness, taking into account demographic variables previously found to be predictive (Robb et al., 2009).

Where complete data were available, the demographic variables of age, marital status, ethnicity and gender in the CAM data were weighted as per the frontline staff dataset in order to compare awareness of cancer warning signs and symptoms.

Publications

The research was published as A telephone survey of cancer awareness among frontline staff: informing training needs in British Journal of Cancer, July 2011.