Importance of nutrition in preventing cancer and public health nurses's role

Aim: The aim was to determine the knowledge level of 15-49 year old women on the role of nutrition in preventing cancer.
Introduction: Cancer is a priority public health problem for almost every country in the world from the aspect of its morbidity and mortality. Cancer follows cardiovascular diseases at 23.4% for causes of death. There are many factors associated with cancer, and one of these factors is nutrition. Epidemiologic and experimental studies have proven that there is a relationship between nutrition and cancer.
Instrument and Method: This research was a cross-sectional study. The 22,840 women between the ages of 15-49 years living in Izmir province’s Odemis Municipality were stratified according to their health care centers and MCH- Family Planning clinic and 200 women were included in the research. A 32-item questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed in the SPSS 13.0 program.
Findings: The mean age of the participating women was 33.76 years and 58% were primary school (primary and middle school) graduates. In this study 36% of the participants had never received any information about cancer and only 14% had received information from health care personnel. Over half (54%) of the women had a body mass index over the ideal and 45% did not know risk factors. The total knowledge score mean was the highest for those who had received information about cancer from health care personnel and the difference compared to the other groups was found to be statistically significant (p<0.001).
Results: It is extremely important to inform all individuals about cancer prevention, early diagnosis and treatment. Increasing the knowledge level of women who bear the primary responsibility for family nutrition and improving the healthy nutrition behaviors in families is extremely important for the prevention of cancer that is a role of the public health nurses.