Oral cancer prevention and early detection: using the PRECEDE-PROCEED framework to guide the training of health professional students.

<bold>Background: </bold>Teaching cancer prevention and detection is important in health professional education. It is desirable to select a comprehensive framework for teaching oral cancer (OC) prevention and detection skills.<bold>Methods: </bold>The PRECEDE-PROCEED model was used to design a randomized pretest and posttest study of the OC prevention and detection skills of dental students (n = 104). OC knowledge, opinions, and competencies were evaluated.<bold>Results: </bold>Second year students in the intervention group were more competent than those in the control group.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>The novel use of PRECEDE-PROCEED sets a precedent for designing a standardized OC curriculum for a wide range of health professional disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]