A hospital based survey to evaluate knowledge, awareness and perceived barriers regarding breast cancer screening among females in Bangladesh

Mohammad Nurul Amin,Md Giash Uddin,Md Nazim Uddin,Md Zahedur Rahaman,Shafayet Ahmed Siddiqui,Md Shahadat Hossain,Md Rakibul Islam,Md Nazmul Hasan,S.M Naim Uddin

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03753

Abstract

BackgroundEarly diagnosis of breast cancer is essential for mitigating its related morbidity and mortality. Therefore, high awareness is required. ObjectivesWe aimed to evaluate the knowledge, awareness and perceived barriers among females in Bangladesh regarding breast cancer. MethodsA hospital-based survey was performed from April 2019 to June 2019. A total of 500 females aged >18 years were recruited to the study. The participants were selected by trained personnel and physicians via simple random sampling. ResultsThe mean participant age was 37.13 ± 12.66 years. Among all the participants, 79% were married, 4% were single, 3% were divorced and 14% were widowed. We observed that 80.6% of respondents were housewives, 5% were students and 14.4% were working women. The participants had a severe lack of knowledge and awareness, and perceived barriers regarding breast cancer screening. Breast cancer was more linked to personal history, occupation and, marital status. Shyness, fear, lack of knowledge and deficient awareness programs were the major perceived barriers. ConclusionEducational interventions and proper, appropriate and socially acceptable awareness programs will help to ameliorate knowledge and awareness by addressing barriers regarding breast cancer among the females in Bangladesh.

Highlights

Cancer is an abnormal development of cells that initially remains localized; with time, it metastasizes, leading to malignant tumour [1]
We found that the mean age of patients with breast cancer in the Bangladeshi population is comparatively lower than that of India, Pakistan and the western countries
We found that knowledge of how breast cancer self-examination (BSE) is performed is comparatively higher in India, Pakistan, and Turkey, very much lower percentages of women were able to perform BSE [14, 21]

Summary

Introduction

Cancer is an abnormal development of cells that initially remains localized; with time, it metastasizes, leading to malignant tumour [1] It is the second-leading cause of death worldwide; it was responsible for 9.6 million deaths reported in 2018 and accounts for about one in six deaths worldwide. Around 588 million women aged >15 years are facing an increasing epidemic of breast cancer. Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the knowledge, awareness and perceived barriers among females in Bangladesh regarding breast cancer. The participants had a severe lack of knowledge and awareness, and perceived barriers regarding breast cancer screening. Conclusion: Educational interventions and proper, appropriate and socially acceptable awareness programs will help to ameliorate knowledge and awareness by addressing barriers regarding breast cancer among the females in Bangladesh

Objectives

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion