95% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Epidemiology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1507563
This article is part of the Research Topic Diet and Digestive Tract Cancers: Investigating the Nutritional Influences on Gastrointestinal Carcinogenesis View all 6 articles
Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices toward Colorectal Cancer Lifestyle Risk Factors among Adults in Saudi Arabia
Provisionally accepted- King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Background: Despite an apparent increase in early-onset colorectal cancer (CRC) in Saudi Arabia, with the majority of patients being diagnosed at an advanced disease stage, no previous assessment of the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) toward its dietary and lifestyle-related risk factors has been reported. The aim of this study was to investigate the KAP levels with respect to these risk factors for CRC and examine possible associations between the studied variables among the Saudi population.This cross-sectional study involved 1,040 participants aged 18 years or older. Data were collected by convenience sampling via a self-administered online questionnaire in Saudi Arabia between June and December 2023.Results: A majority of participants (77.8%) displayed low knowledge about the dietary and lifestylerelated risk factors for CRC, while only 22.2% possessed high knowledge. Similarly, 78.6% of participants exhibited negative attitudes toward these risk factors, with just 21.4% having positive attitudes. Furthermore, 75.0% of participants reported engaging in poor practices, leaving only 25.0% demonstrating good practices related to CRC risk factors.The findings of this study indicate insufficient KAP levels toward dietary and lifestylerelated risk factors for CRC in Saudi Arabia, highlighting the urgent need for nationwide initiatives and programs to promote improved knowledge, attitudes, and practices and reduce the effect of the risk factors contributing to CRC.
Keywords: nutrition, knowledge, attitudes, Practices, colorectal cancer
Received: 08 Oct 2024; Accepted: 24 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Alkhaldy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Areej A Alkhaldy, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.