KNOWLEDGE OF CANCER RISK REDUCTION PRACTICES IN RURAL TOWNS OF NEW-SOUTH-WALES

The Australian Cancer Society has published guidelines for recommended risk reduction strategies for breast, cervical, smoking-related and s kin cancer. While knowledge may not be sufficient for change, it is ar gued to be necessary for change to occur. A measure of the level of he alth knowledge in the community can be useful for health promotion pra ctitioners, identifying where health messages are not reaching their p roposed targets. Our aims were to examine the level of knowledge about risk reduction practices for breast, cervical, smoking-related and sk in cancers, for a rural New South Wales sample, and to examine sex and age effects on knowledge levels. A survey of 2846 women and 1732 men from rural New South Wales, which used an unprompted recall strategy, revealed some notable deficits in recall of cancer risk reduction prac tices: only 26 per cent of women identified mammograms as a risk reduc tion strategy for breast cancer; only 5 per cent of women knew at whic h ages mammograms should start and stop; only 6 per cent of women coul d identify when Pap tests should be discontinued; less than half of th e sample could identify common solar protection strategies; and less t han one-third of people identified passive smoking as a lung cancer ri sk.