Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jun;12(6):1125-1132.
doi: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1753_22. Epub 2023 Jun 30.

Public perception of common cancer misconceptions: A nationwide cross-sectional survey and analysis of over 3500 participants in Saudi Arabia

Azmi Marouf  1 , Rama Tayeb  2 , Ghady D Alshehri  2 , Hana Z Fatani  2 , Mohammed O Nassif  1 , Ali H Farsi  1 , Nouf Y Akeel  1 , Abdulaziz M Saleem  1 , Ali A Samkari  1 , Nora H Trabulsi  1
Affiliations

Public perception of common cancer misconceptions: A nationwide cross-sectional survey and analysis of over 3500 participants in Saudi Arabia

Azmi Marouf et al. J Family Med Prim Care. 2023 Jun.

Abstract

Purpose/background: Patients and healthcare providers use online health information and social media (SM) platforms to seek medical information. As the incidence of cancer rises, the popularity of SM platforms has yielded widespread dissemination of incorrect or misleading information about it. In this study, we aimed to assess public knowledge about incorrect cancer information and how they perceive such information in Saudi Arabia.

Methods: A nationwide survey was distributed in Saudi Arabia. The survey included questions on demographics, SM platform usage, and common misleading and incorrect cancer information.

Results: The sample (N = 3509, mean age 28.7 years) consisted of 70% females and 92.6% Saudi nationals. Most participants had no chronic illness. One-third were college graduates and less than one-quarter were unemployed.

Conclusions: Differences in level of knowledge about cancer emerged in association with different demographic factors. Public trust in health information on SM also led to being misinformed about cancer, independent from educational level and other factors. Efforts should be made to rapidly correct this misinformation.

Keywords: Health information; misinformation; oncology; public knowledge; social media platforms.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Approximate percentages of respondents per region
Figure 2
Figure 2
Percentages of participants who correctly answered the questions in each category. HS: High school or less, CS: College students, HE: Higher education. * Fisher exact test
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Algamdi M, Gonzales A, Farah E. Awareness of common cancer risk factors and symptoms in Saudi Arabia:A community-based study. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2021;22:1813–9. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jazieh AR, Alkaiyat M, Abuelgasim KA, Ardah H. The trends of cancer patients'perceptions on the causes and risk factors of cancer over time. Saudi Med J. 2022;43:479–85. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Johnson SB, Parsons M, Dorff T, Moran MS, Ward JH, Cohen SA, et al. Cancer misinformation and harmful information on Facebook and other social media:A brief report. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2021;114:1036–9. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Yeung AW, Tosevska A, Klager E, Eibensteiner F, Tsagkaris C, Parvanov ED, et al. Medical and health-related misinformation on social media:Bibliometric Study of the scientific literature. J Med Intern Res. 2022;24:e28152. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Almaiman S, Bahkali S, Al Farhan A, Bamuhair S, Househ M, Alsurimi K. The prevalence of using social media among healthcare professionals in Saudi Arabia:A pilot study. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2015;213:263–6. - PubMed