Objective Using a nationwide survey of cancer education outcomes that contribute to cancer control, this study aimed to determine the short-term outcomes of cancer education associated with students' perceptions of cancer risk.Methods An online survey was administered to second-year high school students between September and December 2022. The participants were asked about two basic attributes and 33 short-term outcome measures, as shown in the cancer education logic model. Of the 238 schools randomly selected nationwide, 145 (30,208 students) participated (60.9% of the institutions responded). Of the 21,692 respondents, 20,402 indicated that they would participate in the survey. The analysis included 19,785 respondents (response rate; 65.5%). After calculating the percentage of responses for each item, we conducted a Chi-square test with sex as the dependent variable and logistic regression analysis with cancer risk awareness as the dependent variable, using sex as the adjustment variable for statistical analysis. The significance level was set at P＜0.05.Results The percentage of responses based on the calculation method for each indicator ranged from 67.6-88.4% and 77.5-93.1% among male and female students, respectively, for the seven indicators of cancer prevention. Contrastingly, the percentages for the three indicators in the field of cancer care ranged from 4.3-89.1% and 6.6-89.8% among male and female students, respectively. Cancer risk awareness among female students was higher than that among male students at 3,196 (31.9%) and 2,814 (28.8%), respectively (P＜0.001). Additionally, more female students knew about cancer, whereas more male students felt stigmatized. Furthermore, in an analysis in which sex was used as a moderating variable, 25 of the 33 items were risk perception-related factors. Of these, odds ratio was 0.92 (95% confidence interval; 0.86-0.98) for those who found it easy to judge "the basis of cancer information."Conclusion Cancer risk perception was positively associated with sex and many short-term outcome measures in cancer education. Improved health education on cancer as a typical disease and an appropriate social environment for such education are required.
Keywords: cancer control; cancer education; high school students; nation-wide survey; risk perception.