Investigation of Health, Safety and Environment Indicators in Tehran Municipality Organizations: Challenges, Weaknesses, Strengths and Corrective Strategies

Cancer is a complex disease with a lengthy and expensive course of treatment that causes many problems for the community. Knowledge of oral cancer plays an important role in early diagnosis. The aim of this study was to determine the level of knowledge about the symptoms and risk factors of oral cancer and assess the related factors.

In this study, 671 parents of primary school children were randomly selected from primary schools in four districts of Tehran. The participants were asked to answer questions related to demographic characteristics and knowledge of the risk factors and symptoms of oral cancer. Data analysis was done using Poisson regression model and multi-level Poisson regression model using SPSS and STATA software. The AICI Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) was applied to evaluate the models.

The mean score of knowledge was 3.7 with a standard deviation of 6.7. Among the studied variables, female gender, advanced age, a higher SES score, and a higher welfare index had positive effects on oral cancer knowledge (P <0.05).

The results of this study showed that demographic, social and economic factors of parents were effective on oral cancer. It can be statistically concluded that a multilevel Poisson regression model is more suitable for analyzing this data.