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This study was to investigate the nutrition and cancer prevention knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and self-reported dietary changes. Data were collected from 903 parents whose children were attending an elementary school, a middle school, a high school, or a junior college in Kimcheon. Thirty-seven percent of the subjects reported that they had made dietary changes for their health. Respondents reported eating more vegetables(33.1%), fruit(24.1%), whole grains(19.9%), and lower-fat meats(14.5%) and less alcohol(17.2%), high-fat meat(16.4%), fats(13.8%), smoked foods(13.8%), snacks/cake/sweets(11.7%), salty foods(9.6%), and refined grain products(6.1%). Those who did not make any dietary changes most often said the reason was that they thought their diets were already healthful and therefore there was no reason to make a change. Eighty-nine percent of the subjects agreed that diet and disease were related and 89.5% knew that diet and cancer were related, yet 8% believed there was nothing a person could do to reduce the risk of getting cancer. In response to open-ended questions about foods that either increase or decrease cancer risk, vegetables, fruit, traditional fermented foods, etceteras, and whole grains were thought to decrease risk, and burned foods, salty foods, additives, high-fat meats/fats, and alcohol were thought to increase cancer risk. In this study, education levels to be the major demographic variable and residential district had an impact on cancer prevention knowledge and attitudes. People at lower educational levels and rural residents should be targeted for education about cancer risk reduction.
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