Awareness of Risk Factors and Fallacies Associated with Urinary Bladder Cancer in Our Population: A Prospective Survey

Objective: To determine the awareness of risk factors for bladder cancer and false beliefs associated with this disease.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Kidney Centre, Karachi, from January to February 2015, and comprised subjects who presented to the various in-house clinics. The subjects were interviewed using a questionnaire comprising demographic parameters, level of education and awareness of smoking hazards, knowledge and false beliefs associated with bladder cancer. A pilot study was performed prior to the main study and the questionnaire was redesigned accordingly. SPSS 20 was used for data analysis.

Results: Of the 1,000 respondents, 593(59.3%) were males and 407(40.7%) were females. Moreover, 229(22.9%) respondents were aware of the association between smoking and bladder cancer compared to 858(85.8%) who knew that there is an association between smoking and lung cancer. Besides, 479(47.9%) respondents said that smoking caused tuberculosis. Patients with a higher level of education were statistically more likely to be aware of the association between smoking and bladder cancer, i.e. 91(9.1%) uneducated, 208(20.8%) primary, 182(18.2%) secondary, 222(22.2%) intermediate and 352(35.2%) graduates (p=0.0001). Most common fallacy associated with bladder cancer was low intake of water 504(50.4%), followed by multiple sexual partners 362(36.2%).

Conclusions: Most patients were unaware of the relationship between bladder cancer and tobacco smoking.