Abstract

Introduction: In India Cancer has become a single largest reason of Mortality. Among them Oral, Breast and cervical Cancer are among the top three cancers which are prevalent and screening of these cancers at an early stage can prevent them.

Methodology: Population based cancer screening (PBCS) was conducted in a field practice area of North Bangalore. Out of the 1226 individuals who were surveyed, 856 were eligible to undergo screening. However, out of the only 105 individuals (12.26%) participated in the screening camp. Owing to the large percentage of non-responders, visits were conducted to the village as a post camp activity. A house to house survey was conducted in 5 % of the sample population and reasons for non-participation were sought. Furthermore, in depth interviews of the health workers were conducted to get a further understanding into the behavioural attitude of the participants towards PBCS.

Results: In the surveyed sample of 43 individuals, we found that only 3 had participated in the screening activity. Out of the 40 individuals who did not prefer to participate, we found that 35 of them were aware of screening activity being conducted, while 5 of them did not seem to be aware of the it.

Conclusion: Smart utilizations of resources has to be done to improve the cancer screening which changes with each location and region.

Keywords: Cancer; Population; Screening; Health

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