| Summary: | 碩士 === 大仁科技大學 === 休閒健康管理研究所 === 99 === The incidence of oral cancer in Taiwan increased year by year, since 1994,
replaced the nasopharyngeal as the first among head and neck cancers. As indicated
by the government, the incidence and the death rate were growing recently. Purpose
of this study is to understand the factors affecting the citizens’ behavior intensions of
taking an oral cancer screening. Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior, this study
adopted four distinctive variables in explaining the captioned behavior intentions.
hese variables are attitude toward, subjective norms of, perceived behavioral control
over the oral cancer screening as well as the levels of health literacy. 700
questionnaires were dispatched with 500 valid responses or 71.4% returned by the
citizens with an age 30 or above from the counties of Hualien and Taitung. Statistical
analyses included were descriptive, one-way ANOVA, Pearson product-moment
correlation, and regression analysis. Test results shown that attitude toward, subjective
norms of, and perceived behavioral control over the oral cancer screening as well as
the levels of health literacy varied from some demographic factors to another. The
study proofed that attitude toward, subjective norms of, and perceived behavioral
control over the oral cancer screening had positive impacts on the corresponding
behavior intention, whereas the levels of health literacy had negative relationship with
the intention. The test concluded that the theory of planned behavior was appropriate
as a theoretical framework in explaining the influencing factors of intentions of taking
oral cancer screening. This study suggested the healthcare professional should provide
high accessibility of screening services other than just delivering knowledge on oral
cancer to promote the citizens’ intentions of taking the captioned screening. his
study had some limitations and future research suggestions, of which include the
limitation of generalizability of the current research results, a need to explore the
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relationship with screening intentions and actual screening behavior, and a possibility
of finding mediators between independent variables and behavior intentions. This
research also provided a practical implication to the healthcare professionals when
formulating and implementing promotion instruments for lifting the screening rate of
oral cancer.
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