Awareness on hematological malignancies among college students

Abstract

Cancers of blood arise when the abnormal blood cells undergo uncontrolled growth which outpaces the natural production of normal blood cells, interfering with the cells' normal functions. Leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma are the three types of blood cancers. The aim of our study is to assess and create awareness of hematological malignancies among college students. A questionnaire was prepared using Google Forms based on the awareness of the Hematological malignancies disinfection methods among dental students in Chennai. It was then circulated among a certain set of participants using an online Google Form link. The participants were asked about their knowledge level regarding hematological malignancies and a majority (68.97%) were aware of the same, whereas 27.59% were not aware and the rest (3.45%) were not sure. When asked about how dental care detects various hematological malignancies, 10.34% of the participants replied as “patient speaks about any abnormality,” 75.86% replied as “oral manifestations,” and 13.79% replied as “dentists cannot detect hematological malignancies.” From the above results and discussion, we can come to the conclusion that most of the dental students who participated in the survey are aware of hematological malignancies and its various types.