Perceptions of smoking and lung cancer in New Castle County, Delaware.

There is no standardized survey tool to capture adult respondents' knowledge of risks for lung cancer. We sought to develop such a tool and developed a test survey for this purpose. We designed and implemented this survey to identify knowledge of issues relating to smoking and lung cancer among patients of primary care practices in New Castle County, Delaware. Our study demonstrated the successful piloting of a standardized tool to assess patient knowledge of lung cancer risks. Most respondents (71.6 percent) were knowledgeable of the cluster relating to association between smoking and lung cancer; fewer (38.6 percent) were knowledgeable about the relationship between smoking cessation and lung cancer. The areas relating to lung cancer diagnosis and treatment identified the greatest gaps in understanding, with only 15.8 percent displaying a moderate level of knowledge. Implications for care and for policy are discussed.