Effects of Nursing Education on Awareness of Risk Factors for Colorectal Cancer

Background: The objective of this study is to determine the effect of nursing education on awareness of riskfactors for colorectal cancer. Materials and
Methods: In this descriptive study, the sample is consisted of 132volunteer students studying in the 1st and 4th grades of School of Health Nursing Department during the fallsemester of 2014-2015. Data were collected via a questionnaire including information on the socio-demographicfeatures of the participants and the correlating risk factors of colorectal cancer, prepared by researchers inview of the literature. The questionnaire was distributed to students and completed during class time. Beforepresenting the questionnaires to the respondents, informed consent was obtained from each. The data obtainedwere analyzed with a statistical package (SPSS). At first, a Kolmogorov-Smirnow test was performed on theresearch data. However, since it was seen that variables did not have a normal distribution, the WilcoxonSigned Ranks Test was applied. P values of <0.05 were considered statistically significant. Percentages, meansand standard deviations were also utilized for evaluation.
Results: Of the total of 132 students participating inthis study, 85.6% (n=113) were female, and 14.4% (n=19) were male. The average age was 20.5±2.04. 54.5 % ofthe students (n=72) were 4th graders and 45.5 % (n=60) were first graders. Total score averages of first graderson risk awareness was X=12 ± 7.24, and fourth graders was X=16.93 ± 7.71. The difference between these twoscores were found to be statistically significant (Z= -9,333; p=0.000).
Conclusions: Nursing education was foundout to have a positive influence on the students’ awareness of risk factors for colorectal cancer.