title: Evaluation of the different strategies to oral cancer knowledge: a randomized controlled study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Oral cavity and pharyngeal cancer has been well recognized as a public health problem. Prognosis for oral cancer is substantially improved when diagnosed early. A study was made of the impact of different educational strategies upon knowledge of oral cancer, evaluating the intervention after 4 weeks.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ninety subjects over 40 years of age were consecutively included and randomized to three different groups (video, leaflet, verbal information). All subjects completed a 20-item pre-test on their knowledge of the risk factors, signs, and symptoms of oral cancer, and posteriorly received the video, leaflet, or verbal information, with evaluation of the results after 4 weeks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In relation to the items correctly answered at baseline, all subjects showed an increase in knowledge score after 4 weeks: verbal information 4.77 ± 3.31, leaflets 4.53 ± 3.44, and video 3.67 ± 3.31 - no statistically significant differences being observed for any of the three strategies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The oral cancer knowledge score increased following the educational intervention, which proved successful over the short term.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Medicine, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain. majornet@um.es
authors.forename: Pia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: López-Jornet
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Camacho-Alonso
authors.forename: Francisco Molina
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Miñano
authors.forename: Mariano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sanchez-Siles
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms; D010174:Pamphlets; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000379:methods*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014741:Video Recording