The relationship between colorectal cancer fatalism and health literacy of three generations of nursing students and their families

Abstract

Background and Objectives: It is important to evaluate the relationship between health literacy and colorectal cancer fatalism. Because limited health literacy constitutes a barrier to information seeking and fatalistic beliefs reduce participation in healthy lifestyle behaviors. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between colorectal cancer fatalism and health literacy of three generations of nursing students and their families. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional and correlational study was conducted during the 2022-2023 academic year at a Nursing Department in the Faculty of Health Sciences in Istanbul/Turkey and their families between March and December 2023. Students and their families were selected through a convenience sampling method. The sample calculation was calculated as 313 using the sampling calculation method with known population. The data were collected with the Information Form, the CRC Fatalism Scale, and the Health literacy Scale. Factors predicting CRC fatalism were also investigated in this study. Results: The study was conducted with 472 participants, 272 were nursing students, 107 were parents of nursing students, and 93 were grandparents of nursing students. The majority of all generations didn’t undergo CRC screening (97.8%, 92.5%, and 94.6%, respectively) and reported never having heard of early diagnosis methods for CRC (72.4%, 75.7%, and 76.3%, respectively) and were unaware of the risk factors for CRC (72.4%, 87.9%, and 60.2%, respectively). The age, having bowel disease and Health literacy Scale Score variables were found to be statistically significant, explaining 28.8% of the variance in the CRC Fatalism Scale total scores (p<0.05). Conclusion: The study determined that the majority of nursing students, their parents and grandparents didn’t undergo CRC screening and didn’t know about early detection methods and risk factors related to CRC. In particular, the study results reveal the importance of providing training to improve health literacy in order to reduce CRC fatalism and increase cancer screening behaviours in individuals aged 50 years and over.