"Cancer--Educate to Prevent"--high-school teachers, the new promoters of cancer prevention education campaigns

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and thus represents a priority for national public health programs. Prevention has been assumed as the best strategy to reduce cancer burden, however most cancer prevention programs are implemented by healthcare professionals, which constrain r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2014-05, Vol.9 (5), p.e96672
Main Authors: Barros, Ana, Moreira, Luís, Santos, Helena, Ribeiro, Nuno, Carvalho, Luís, Santos-Silva, Filipe
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Biology
Biology - education
Biology and Life Sciences
Breast cancer
Cancer
Cancer prevention
Classrooms
Disease prevention
Education
Faculty
Female
Health care
Health education
Health Education - methods
Health Education - statistics & numerical data
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Health promotion
Health services
Human papillomavirus
Humans
Immunization
Immunology
Intervention
Knowledge
Learning
Male
Medical personnel
Medicine and Health Sciences
Middle Aged
Mortality
Neoplasms - diagnosis
Neoplasms - prevention & control
Online instruction
Pathology
Perceptions
Pilot Projects
Prevention
Preventive Medicine - education
Program Evaluation - methods
Program Evaluation - statistics & numerical data
Promoters
Public health
Public schools
Quantitative analysis
Schools
Science Policy
Social Sciences
Socialization
Students
Studies
Surveys and Questionnaires
Teacher evaluations
Teachers
Teaching - methods
Training
Workforce
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Summary:Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and thus represents a priority for national public health programs. Prevention has been assumed as the best strategy to reduce cancer burden, however most cancer prevention programs are implemented by healthcare professionals, which constrain range and educational impacts. We developed an innovative approach for cancer prevention education focused on high-school biology teachers, considered privileged mediators in the socialization processes. A training program, "Cancer, Educate to Prevent" was applied, so that the teachers were able to independently develop and implement prevention campaigns focused on students and school-related communities. The program encompassed different educational modules, ranging from cancer biology to prevention campaigns design. Fifty-four teachers were empowered to develop and implement their own cancer prevention campaigns in a population up to five thousands students. The success of the training program was assessed through quantitative evaluation--questionnaires focused on teachers' cancer knowledge and perceptions, before the intervention (pre-test) and immediately after (post-test). The projects developed and implemented by teachers were also evaluated regarding the intervention design, educational contents and impact on the students' knowledge about cancer. This study presents and discusses the results concerning the training program "Cancer, Educate to Prevent" and clearly shows a significant increase in teacher's cancer literacy (knowledge and perceptions) and teachers' acquired proficiency to develop and deliver cancer prevention campaigns with direct impact on students' knowledge about cancer. This pilot study reinforces the potential of high-school teachers and schools as cancer prevention promoters and opens a new perspective for the development and validation of cancer prevention education strategies, based upon focused interventions in restricted targets (students) through non-health professionals (teachers).
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0096672