Public Attitudes Towards Lung Cancer Screening in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Figures & data

Table 1 Participants’ Demographic Characteristics

Variable	Frequency	Percentage
Gender
Males	367	77.6%
Age categories
18–23 years	38	8.0%
24–29 years	88	18.6%
30–34 years	131	27.7%
35–39 years	89	18.8%
40–45 years	53	11.2%
46 years and over	74	15.6%
Marital status
Single	132	27.9%
Married	282	59.6%
Divorced	42	8.9%
Widowed	17	3.6%
Education level
High school level or lower	74	15.6%
Bachelor degree	329	69.6%
Higher education	70	14.8%
Employment status
Retired	16	3.4%
Unemployed	55	11.6%
Work outside healthcare sector	310	65.5%
Student	40	8.5%
Work in healthcare sector	52	11.0%
Monthly income level
Less than 2500 SAR	41	8.7%
2500–5000 SAR	64	13.5%
5000–7500 SAR	134	28.3%
7500 SAR and over	234	49.5%
Do you know someone from family or friends who has cancer?
Yes	215	45.5%
Smoking status
Non-smoker	43	9.1%
Ex-smoker	77	16.3%
Current smoker	353	74.6%
How confident are you that you have the ability to stop smoking?
Extremely high	53	11.2%
Very high	88	18.6%
High	99	20.9%
Not high	105	22.2%
Low	87	18.4%
Very low	41	8.7%

Abbreviation: SAR, Saudi riyal.

Figure 1 Perception of cancer and lung cancer.

Table 2 Participants’ Beliefs and Worry About Lung Cancer

Variable	Very Poor	Poor	Moderate	High	Very High
“If lung cancer is detected early, what is the person’s chance of surviving?”	13.3%	18.2%	35.5%	24.9%	8.0%
	No definitely	No probably	Neutral	Yes probably	Yes definitely
“If the screening test found that you had early-stage lung cancer, would you want to have the recommended surgery?”	9.3%	14.4%	20.7%	39.5%	16.1%
	Never	Rarely	Neutral	Frequently	Always
“How often do you worry about your chance of getting lung cancer?”	18.6%	29.8%	29.2%	18.0%	4.0%

Abbreviation: CT, Computed tomography.

Figure 2 Attitudes and beliefs towards lung cancer screening.

Table 3 Predictors of Positive Attitude Towards Lung Cancer Screening

Variable	Odds Ratio of Having positive Attitude Towards Lung Cancer Screening (95% Confidence Interval)	P-value
Gender
Males (Reference group)	1.00
Females	0.30 (0.17–0.53)	≤0.001
Age categories
18–23 years (Reference group)	1.00
24–29 years	3.28 (1.15–9.32)	0.026
30–34 years	2.16 (1.03–4.54)	0.042
35–39 years	1.08 (0.52–2.22)	0.845
40–45 years	0.87 (0.37–2.03)	0.744
46 years and over	0.27 (0.14–0.50)	≤0.001
Marital status
Single (Reference group)	1.00
Married	1.22 (0.70–2.14)	0.489
Divorced	1.30 (0.45–3.80)	0.627
Widowed	0.42 (0.13–1.33)	0.140
Education level
High school level or lower (Reference group)	1.00
Bachelor degree	1.71 (0.096–3.02)	0.068
Higher education	0.42 (0.22–0.80)	0.009
Employment status
Retired (Reference group)	1.00
Unemployed	0.48 (0.23–1.00)	0.050
Work outside healthcare sector	1.50 (0.85–2.65)	0.161
Student	0.60 (0.25–1.43)	0.251
Work in healthcare sector	2.35 (0.71–7.82)	0.163
Monthly income level
Less than 2500 SAR (Reference group)	1.00
2500–5000 SAR	0.79 (0.37–1.71)	0.555
5000–7500 SAR	1.09 (0.58–2.05)	0.785
7500 SAR and over	1.06 (0.61–1.85)	0.841
Do you know someone from family or friends who has cancer?
No (Reference group)	1.00
Yes	1.58 (0.89–2.82)	0.121
Smoking status
Non-smoker (Reference group)	1.00
Ex-smoker	0.68 (0.34–1.35)	0.269
Current smoker	2.11 (1.18–3.77)	0.012

Abbreviation: SAR, Saudi riyal.