Can-Help
News Diet and Cancer Survey (Dec 2002 issue)
By: Ms Alice Koo,
Education Researcher,
National Cancer Centre
Thanks to our readers who
have participated in a short survey conducted by Can-Help News on
Diet and Cancer in the Dec 2002 issue, we have received 282 responses.
We are pleased to share with you some highlights from the survey.
The respondents were predominantly Chinese. Only 4% were Malays and
another 4% were Indians. About 70% of the responses came from women.
Our readers believed that there was a moderate (44.9%) to strong (44.9%)
relationship between diet and cancer.
When asked to rank the most important factors that cause cancer, our
Chinese readers ranked "diet" as the main cause for cancer followed
by "smoking", "hereditary" and "stress". Indian respondents also ranked
"diet" as the most important even when they chose "moderate" instead
of "strong" relationship between diet and cancer. Next, they chose
"alcohol" followed by "smoking" and "hereditary". Malay respondents
ranked "smoking", "heredity" and "radiation" respectively as the top
three causes of cancer.
Most respondents agreed that eating the right kinds of food could
prevent cancer or facilitate recovery from the illness. From the findings,
the Indians showed a slightly weaker belief in food and health when
compared to the Chinese and Malays. However, it is interesting to
note that the 3 ethnic groups seemed to share the belief of "hot",
"cold" or "neutral" food.
Fruits and vegetables came out tops as cancer-preventing food. Char-grilled,
preserved, fried and canned food topped the list of cancer causing
foods, while Lingzhi was most frequently named as the food that can
cure cancer.
Respondents' opinion on the use of tonic and supplements were more
divided. Most Chinese agreed with the statement "Western drugs can
weaken a patient's body" suggesting that the statement is a Chinese
belief as the Malays and Indians think otherwise.
1.8% of respondents think that cancer is contagious and could spread
through sharing of eating utensils.
Overall, the majority of respondents did not agree with the statement
"There is nothing you can do to prevent cancer". However, 17% of the
older aged group (60years & above) agreed with the statement when
compared to the younger ones. Is this a result of aging where a person
becomes more stoic and accepting or is it the lack of information?
Further studies are needed to clarify this pessimistic view.
