National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative: Cervical Cancer Awareness Measure Benchmarking Survey, 2009

<p>The <span style="font-style: italic;">Cancer Awareness Measure</span> (CAM) was developed in 2007-8 to address the absence of a validated measure of general public awareness of cancer (Stubbings, S., Robb, K., Waller, J., Ramirez, A., Austoker, J., Macleod, U., Hion, S., and Wardle, J. (2009) 'Development of a measurement tool to assess public awareness of cancer', British Journal of Cancer, 101(2), S13-S17.).<br><br>The survey includes measures of awareness of signs and symptoms of cancer, cancer risk factors, age-related risk, screening programmes and potential barriers to seeing the GP. Since then, Cancer Research UK (CRUK) has significantly revised and updated the survey, including a wider range of questions and collecting data online instead of face-to-face. The CAM was also previously known as the National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative Cancer Awareness Measure (NAEDI-CAM).</p> This survey was designed to benchmark current levels of knowledge about cervical cancer among women in England. The survey will allow an evaluation of the success of the Department of Health’s key messages on cervical cancer in raising cervical cancer awareness. The survey made use of the Cervical Cancer Awareness Measure (Cervical CAM), which was developed by the Cervical Cancer Awareness and Symptoms Initiative (CCASI), a tripartite collaboration between the Department of Health, the Eve Appeal, and University College London’s Health Behaviour Research Centre. <br>
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The survey was carried out in November-December 2009, prior to the launch on the Department of Health’s key messages on cervical cancer in January 2010. A sample of 1,392 women in England aged 16 years and over completed a questionnaire on a laptop, in their own homes. The sample was selected using random location sampling, and was weighted to ensure that it was representative of women in England.<br>