Assessment of breast self- examination practice and associated factors among female workers in Debre Tabor Town public health facilities, North West Ethiopia, 2018: Cross- sectional study.

Asrat Hailu Dagne,Ephrem Mengesha Assefa,Alemu Degu Ayele,Tebit Emmanuel Kwenti

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0221356

Abstract

BackgroundAlthough breast Self-Examination is no longer tenable as a standard method to detect early breast cancer, world health organization recommends breast self -examination for raising awareness of women about breast cancer. Secondary prevention through monthly breast self-examination is the best option to tackle the rising incidence of breast cancer. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess breast self -examination practice and associated factors.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted from April 23 to May 23, 2018. A total of 421 female workers in Debre Tabor Town public health facilities were included. The study participants were selected using simple random sampling technique from the study population. The collected data were checked for completeness. The data were entered and cleaned using EpiData version 3.1 then exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Crude odd ratio and probability value were identified for each independent variable and all independent variables with probability value of less than 0.2 were entered into multivariables logistic regression. Statistically significant associated factors were identified based on probability value (p-value) less than 0.05 and adjusted odd ratio with 95% confidence interval.ResultThe mean age of participants was 25.2 (S.D = 4.12) and 137 (32.5%) of the participants had practiced breast self -examination and 64 (15.2%) of them performed it monthly. Family history of breast cancer (adjusted OR = 6.5, CI = 1.54–21.4), Knowledge about breast -self examination (adjusted OR = 5.74, CI = 2.3–14.4) and self- efficacy in practicing breast self -examination (adjusted OR = 4.7, CI = 1.84–12.11) were significantly associated with breast self -examination practice.ConclusionsThe study showed that the prevalence of breast self-examination was low. Family history of breast cancer, knowledge about breast self -examination and self- efficacy in practicing breast self- examination did have statistically significant association with breast self—examination practice.

Highlights

Breast self -examination is one of the early noticing way of breast cancer which involves the woman herself looking at and feeling each breast for possible mass, discharge, swelling, dimpling and other abnormalities [1]
The study showed that the prevalence of breast self-examination was low
The odds of practicing breast self- examination was 5.74 (AOR, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.3–14.4) times higher among knowledgeable female workers for breast self- examination compared to female workers who were not knowledgeable

Summary

Introduction

Breast self -examination is one of the early noticing way of breast cancer which involves the woman herself looking at and feeling each breast for possible mass, discharge, swelling, dimpling and other abnormalities [1]. Breast self -examination is a kind of examination made by each woman and it is cost effective, painless, easy to apply, safe, and non invasive procedures without special material or tool requirements. It is an important noticing way of breast cancer which takes five minutes to apply [3]. The aim of this study was to assess breast self -examination practice and associated factors

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Conclusion