Cancer-Related Risk Behaviors of Junior High School Students in Taiwan: The 2016 Annual Report of a Cancer Prevention Educational Program

Background: We performed an on-site cancer prevention educational program by oncologists focusing on all cancer types, and with emphasis on oral cancer. The program has been long-term supported by charity organizations of the Taiwan Total Cancer Care Foundation, and the Taiwan Cancer Total Care Information Society. Aim: To have a better understanding for cancer-related risk behaviors of our junior high school students in Taiwan, we performed a self-reported questionnaire survey before each educational activity. Methods: The questionnaire survey mainly focused on 3 cancer-related risk behaviors CBA [cigarette smoking (C), betel-nut chewing (B), alcohol drinking (A)], regarding the percentage of “frequent” CBA consumption, “ever-experience” of cancer-related risk behavior, starting time of risk behavior, sources of CBA, and existence of risk behavior among their parents/senior family members. Results: During 2016, 4,589 junior high school students received our on-site educational program whose questionnaires are valid for analysis. Among them, 4,097 and 492 students are from western and eastern towns. Taiwan is geographically divided by the high-altitude Central Mountains into western and eastern towns. Western towns are relatively more urban, while eastern towns are more rural in both industrial and economic development. Questionnaires from 7th, 8th, 9th grade of junior high school students represent 37.1%, 44.0%, and 18.9%. The average body mass index (BMI) is 20.68 and 21.47 in western and eastern towns, respectively. The average BMI of boy students between western & eastern towns shows statistically significant difference of 21.87 (eastern) and 21.01 (western), respectively ( P = 0.005, Pearson χ 2 ), while the average BMI of girl students has only a trend to be higher in eastern towns (20.82) than that in western towns (20.30) ( P = 0.072). The percentage of “frequent” (daily, or 2-6 days per week) consumption of C, B, and A is 2.7%, 0.6%, and 1.3%, respectively. The percentage of “frequent” C consumption shows statistically significant higher in eastern (4.5%) than western (2.5%) towns ( P = 0.009), the percentage of “frequent” B consumption also shows statistically significant higher in eastern (1.6%) than western (0.5%) towns ( P = 0.003). However, the percentage of frequent A consumption has no significant difference between western (1.2%) & eastern (1.8%) towns ( P = 0.257). The percentage of “ever-experience” of A is significantly higher in eastern (5%) than western (3%) towns ( P = 0.001), while the percentage of ever-experience of C has no significant difference between eastern (9%) & western (7%) towns ( P = 0.257), the percentage of ever-experience of B also has no significant difference between eastern (16%) & western (15%) towns ( P = 0.751). Conclusion: Self-reported survey for junior high school students on cancer-related risk behaviors, CBA, revealed that frequent cigarette smoking (C) is the most prevalent (2.7%) one among CBA in Taiwan.