Colorectal Cancer: Exploring Awareness in Lebanon

Background: In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) has identified Colorectal Cancer (CRC) as the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths (694,000 deaths) after lung (1.59 million deaths), liver (745,000 deaths) and stomach (723,000 deaths) cancers. Thus, CRC awareness is needed in order to promote CRC screening which is widely recommended but remains underused, especially among poor populations. Objective: The study assessed the current understanding of CRC among the Lebanese population in order to propose recommendations that may contribute to increasing the screening rates where it is widely known that the survival rate increases significantly with early interventions. Materials and Methods: The study surveyed 1140 participants that were approached in public places, universities, entrances of the hospitals or places of work as well as following a snowball tactic by giving some potential participants few surveys to complete within their own social circles. The survey included questions related to risk factors, symptoms, and methods of screening. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS version 23.0 software. Results: The results of this study underline the lack of knowledge on CRC where the percentage of respondents that has never heard about it exceeds 59%; likewise, the study underlines the lack of knowledge on CRC screening where the percentage of respondents that have heard about it while claiming that they are familiar with CRC does not exceed 57.17%. Similarly, the results revealed poor knowledge in what relates to CRC risk factors and symptoms. Conclusions: Lack of awareness on CRC and its common risks and symptoms terminology is a barrier to CRC screening; accordingly, effective awareness campaigns are needed to highlight these issues.