Level of Cancer Awareness among Women of Low Socioeconomic Status in Mumbai Slums

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Cancer, a major cause of morbidity and mortality in India can be prevented by early detectionthrough screening, for which, awareness is essential. Aim: Determining cancer awareness among low socioeconomicwomen in Mumbai. Settings and Design: Community based cancer screening study using a mobilevan. Materials and methods: Data of consenting participants, collected using structured questionnaire, wasdifferentiated into good and poor level of awareness using point based grading procedure. <br/><b>Results</b>: Mean age of182 participants, majority (90.5%) belonging to lower socioeconomic strata, was 43.0±8.8 years. Knowledge aboutcancer (84.6%) was good compared to knowledge of cancer screening (35.1%), awareness being higher amongricher and more educated. Major sources of information were friends or relatives (46.1%) and media (35.2%).Only 6.6% had undergone prior screening. <br/><b>Conclusion</b>: In spite of appreciable knowledge about cancer, creatingawareness about screening, its availability, and motivating the general population for screening is necessary.