The Journal of

Abstract

Background: Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide. It is the third common cancer and the second leading cause of death from cancers in the developed countries. First degree relatives of colorectal cancer patient have a 2-3 fold higher risk to develop disease. Planning for Prevention from disease at this group needs to review their current needs and assess their awareness and intention for prevention. This study aimed to determine intention of the relatives of colorectal cancer patients in Yazd city, Iran, based on the theory of planned behavior.

Methods: In this descriptive analytic study, 99 men and women over 20 years of age, and first degree relatives of patients with colorectal cancer were included in the census. Data were collected by a 45-items questionnaire based on the theory of planned behavior.

All data were transformed to SPSS software and analyzed using Pearson correlation test, post hoc Tukey test, linear regression and Student T-test.

Result: 59/6% (59 people) of the participants were male and 40/4% (40 people) were female. Mean age was 39 years. Mean knowledge, attitude, behavioral intention, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control were 10/57±3.46 (of 19), 63/39±9.46 (of  90), 8/35 ± 3/5(of 15), 9/13±3/14 (of 15), 5/31±1/97(of 10) respectively.

Structures of knowledge, attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control had predicted the intention up to 73 percent.

Conclusion: Knowledge, attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and intention were at low level.

Considering the low scores of the structures, educational programs for patients` relatives based on the theory of planned behavior can increase intention of target population for voluntary screening.