Niveles de conocimientos, actitudes y prácticas sobre cáncer oral en estudiantes de odontología en una Universidad de México

Abstract

Background: Oral cancer is a worldwide health problem, representing the sixth most common malignancy. Dental students and professionals must be trained in its detection, being clear about the signs and symptoms to make a presumptive diagnosis early. Objective: To determine the levels of knowledge, attitudes and practices about oral cancer in dental students from a university in Mexico in the first period of 2024. Materials and methods: Study with an observational, analytical cross-sectional approach, with a sample of 112 students from the Faculty of Dentistry, a validated Likert-type survey with 48 questions was conducted. For the univariate analysis, percentages were used in the qualitative variables and, on the other hand, the quantitative variables were analyzed by means with standard deviation (SD) or medians with interquartile ranges (IQR), the Shapiro Wilk test was used for normality. In the bivariate aspect, with Anova and Kruskal Wallis to define significant associations p ≤0.05. Results: There was a higher frequency of participation of the female sex at 76.79%, with a median age of 22.5 years (IQR 20-23). Regarding knowledge, the average was 6.87 (SD 1.82), attitudes 19.14 (SD 6.11) and practices 41.15 (SD 5.73). There was no significant statistical relationship with the sociodemographic variables, however, third-year students had a better score in the knowledge section, fourth-year students in attitudes and fifth-year students in practices, with females prevailing. Conclusions: They present good scores in knowledge and recognize risk factors, in attitudes there was a low score due to the little continuous training and education provided, but there is interest in having adequate education.