title: [Perception of risk factors for cancer in the Spanish population].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the perception of the Spanish population of risk factors for cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were extracted from the OncoBarometro 2010 survey. Multivariate logistic models were applied to analyze the perception of the population on the importance of various risk factors: smoking, alcohol, sun, food, weight, sexually transmitted diseases, family history, radiation exposure, exposure to toxic substances and air pollution. The answers were rated on a 0 to 10 scale and were converted to low (0-6) and high (7-10) categories. The measure of association used was the prevalence ratio (PR).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The greatest importance was assigned to smoking (high importance: 83.1%), whereas the least importance was assigned to weight (26.5%). In general, the probability of perceiving risk factors as important was lower among men (PR sun: 0.87; PR sexually transmitted diseases: 0.78) and increased among people who received professional advice on cancer prevention (PR alcohol: 1.11; PR sun: 1.18; PR food; 1.31; PR weight: 1.92). In particular, knowledge of symptoms and extreme fear of cancer were associated with perceiving smoking as an important risk factor, whereas a high perceived vulnerability to cancer was associated with perceiving exposure to toxic substances, pollution and smoking as important risk factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Greater awareness is required of the association of cancer with overweight and sexually transmitted diseases. The recommendations given by health professionals on cancer prevention are key to increasing the population's awareness of risk factors for cancer.
authors.affiliation: Escuela Nacional de Sanidad, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, España; CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), España. Electronic address: bsanz@isciii.es.
authors.forename: Belén
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sanz-Barbero
authors.affiliation: Escuela Nacional de Sanidad, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, España.
authors.forename: María Eugenia
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Prieto-Flores
authors.affiliation: Escuela Nacional de Sanidad, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, España; Red Nacional de Investigación de Servicios de Salud en Enfermedades Crónicas (REDISSEC), España.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Otero-García
authors.affiliation: Red Nacional de Investigación de Servicios de Salud en Enfermedades Crónicas (REDISSEC), España; Fundación Canaria de Investigación y Salud (FUNCIS), España.
authors.forename: Analía
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abt-Sacks
authors.affiliation: Red Nacional de Investigación de Servicios de Salud en Enfermedades Crónicas (REDISSEC), España; Fundación Canaria de Investigación y Salud (FUNCIS), España.
authors.forename: Mariola
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bernal
authors.affiliation: Observatorio del Cáncer, AECC, Fundación Científica de la Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer, Madrid, España.
authors.forename: Naiara
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cambas
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cáncer; Factores de riesgo; Neoplasms; Percepción social; Risk factors; Social perceptions