Survey on Lung Cancer Awareness

We were delighted to welcome Transition Year student Mitchell Hurley, from Sutton Park School, to work with our Target Lung Cancer team / Thoracic Oncology Research Group recently for work experience. Mitchell created a Lung Cancer Awareness survey for his peers to provide an insight into what exactly young students know about lung cancer, their opinions on smoking and how it affects their body. Mitchell also wanted to find out what type of advertising campaigns they believe to be most effective in discouraging people from smoking. Have a look at some of the results…

Lung Cancer and Smoking Awareness Survey of Secondary School Students

Summary of Results

Lung cancer awareness

• The majority of students do not know how lung cancer is diagnosed.
• Most students know the contributing factors to developing lung cancer.
• More than 50% of students know the symptoms and treatment of lung cancer.

Smoking

• The majority of students are aware and understand the risks and impacts of smoking.
• 85% of students that carried out the survey do not smoke.
• Those who do smoke, smoke 15 or less cigarettes a day.

Effective advertising campaigns

• The majority of teenagers believe that patients with lung cancer explaining how the disease has affected them and their families is the most impactful means of persuading people to stop smoking.
• The place where it has the most impact is on TV as this gives a sense that this can happen in your own home and how devastating it can be for a household.