Conhecimento de estudantes universitários sobre o câncer de pele e hábitos de fotoproteção solar.

Abstract

Skin cancer is the most frequent in Brazil, corresponding to 25% of all malignant tumors registered in the country, besides being a multifactorial pathology problem, resulting from genetic changes, environmental factors and lifestyle, being a serious problem of public health. The present study aimed to analyze the knowledge of university students about sun exposure and skin cancer, aiming to outline the behavior patterns of young people in the face of solar effects.This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study with a quantitative approach, which was carried out with 252 university students from the Federal University of Campina Grande, from the Teacher’s Training Center, Campus of Cajazeiras-PB. Participated in the study 89 students from Nursing, 60 from Medicine, 47 from Biological Sciences and 56 from Chemistry. The instrument used to collect data consisted of a questionnaire, about the socioeconomic profile and the specific questions about skin cancer and photoprotection. Data analysis was performed through descriptive reports (absolute distributions, percentages and standard means) and statistical tests were performed without the SPSS software, version 20. All items of resolution 466/12 of the National Health Council, which regulates the research with humans, were obeyed in this study. The results were that university students have a population at risk for the precursor travels of skin cancer, by 80% of high frequency at risk times (10 to 16 hours), as measures of photoprotection are practiced by most of the interviewees, however, in an irregular way; women tend to get more protected from photodamage than men; the ultraviolet radiation risk factor is well known; the students of the health sciences obtained greater knowledge regarding the skin cancer and its prevention in relation to the licentiate academics. There is a need to carry out new research that may help reveal the wrong habits of photoexposure and photoprotection among young people, so that the problem can be detected in a more comprehensive way, since there has been a shortage of studies in this perspective. In this way, it will be possible to offer guidance at the individual and collective levels, collaborating to prevent skin lesions.