Original Article Knowledge, attitude, preventive practices and perceived barriers to screening about colorectal cancer among university students of newly merged district, Kpk, Pakistan – A cross-sectional study Iltaf Hussain 1 , Abdul Majeed 1 , Muhammad F Rasool 1 , Musaddique Hussain 2 , Imran Imran 3 , Muhib ullah 4 and Hamid Ullah 3 Abstract Introduction: Colorectal cancer is the third most common type of cancer in the world and in Pakistan it ranks at fifth position. The present study was conducted to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, preventive practices and perceived barriers to screening about colorectal cancer among university students. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted after developing a self-administered questionnaire among the univer- sity students of newly merged districts of Kpk, Pakistan Result: A total of 302 students (232 male and 70 female) participated in the study. The knowledge score of the participants regarding the risk factors and warning signs of colorectal cancer was 59.9% and 40%. More than 90% of the participants were of the view that colorectal cancer diagnosis at initial stages can improve treatment and around 80% were in favorof undergoing regular physical examination to avoid colorectal cancer. Only 37.7% of the participants had intentionally collected information about colorectal cancer. The percentage of participants who intentionally participated in educational activities related to colorectal cancer was 33.1%. Furthermore, only 24.4% of the participant had ever taken part in colorectal cancer screening. The barriers toward colorectal cancer screening were fear of finding colorectal cancer and the anxiety of screening procedures. However, around 32% of the participants had no knowledge about colorectal cancer screening. Conclusion: In view of the findings of this study, it can be suggested that community awareness programs that are focused towards screening of colorectal cancer may be initiated in the newly merged districts of Kpk, Pakistan. The implementation of such colorectal cancer screening program can help in its early detection and can potentially lower the associated mortality and morbidity risk with this disease. Keywords Colorectal cancer, knowledge, attitude, preventive practices, screening Date received: 7 January 2020; revised: 3 April 2020; accepted: 7 April 2020 Introduction Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common type of cancer among men and is second in women. 1,2 International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has reported 1.8 million new cases and 0.8 million deaths related to CRC in 2018. American Cancer 1 Department of Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan 2 Department of Pharmacy, Islamia University Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan 3 Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan 4 Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, Pakistan Corresponding author: Iltaf Hussain, Department of Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan. Email: iltafhussain.pharmacist@gmail.com J Oncol Pharm Practice 0(0) 1–9 ! The Author(s) 2020 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/1078155220922598 journals.sagepub.com/home/opp