Knowledge, attitude and performance study of secondary school teachers of Yazd city regarding skin cancer

Background The cancers are a major health problem and skin cancers are the most prevalent cancers. It is clear that teachers play an important role in the health education of students and their families. Objective This study was done to determine the knowledge, attitude and performance levels of teachers in Yazd city regarding skin cancer in order to plan programs for increasing their respective levels. Methods Samples of this cross sectional study selected randomly from the schools of Yazd. The data were collected by completion of questionnaire. anova, Kruskal-Wallis, T-test and Pearson Correlations statistical tests were used for analysis. Results Of the total, 170 were men and 270 were women with a mean age of 37.98 +/- 6.28 years. The mean knowledge, attitude and performance score of the teachers respectively was 24.17 +/- -5.27, 28.09 +/- -5.79 and 6.34 +/- -3.42. The knowledge levels were significantly related to the attitude (P = 0.05) and performance levels (P = 0.01). There was an inverse relation between age and performance levels (P = 0.01). The performance levels of women were better than men (P = 0.001). The field of study and education of the teachers was related to the knowledge (P = 0.001) and attitude levels (P = 0.02). Conclusion Skin cancers are the most common form of cancers in our state, but my teachers do not have appropriate knowledge and performance levels about this disease. It is therefore proposed that related information should be given to them during continuous and regular educational programs.