Awareness Level about Breast Cancer Risk Factors, Barriers, Attitude and Breast Cancer Screening among Indonesian Women

Solikhah Solikhah,Cameron Hurst,Supannee Promthet

doi:10.31557/apjcp.2019.20.3.877

Abstract

Background:Globally, breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women and is a leading cause of mortality in Indonesia. Raising awareness of breast cancer is particularly important to help at risk women seek medical treatment for this disease. This study aimed to comprehensively investigate the Indonesian women’s level of knowledge about breast cancer risk factors, barriers, attitude and breast cancer screening.Methods:This population-based cross-sectional study administered the breast cancer awareness Indonesian scale (BCAS-I) to 856 Indonesian women. Samples were selected in rural and urban combinations from three provinces by stratified random sampling. The ordinal logistic model was used to investigate the clustering effect of the participant’s characteristics in this study.Results:Of the women, 62% lived in rural areas and 38% lived in urban areas. Living in an urban area was significantly associated with a lower knowledge of the risk factors. However, living in an urban area was significantly associated with better attitudes and healthier behaviours related to breast cancer awareness. Women with higher education levels had 70% worse attitudes toward breast cancer awareness. Women living South of Sumatera, women living in Yogyakarta, and unmarried women were 5.03, 3.84, and 1.56 times as likely to have higher perceived barriers, respectively.Conclusion:Urban women had a poorer level of knowledge of breast cancer risk factors compared to women living in more rural areas. The result of this study may reflect inadequate breast cancer awareness campaigns or a lack of breast cancer awareness campaigns. These findings suggest that additional education programs aiming to increase awareness and educate the public are needed.

Highlights

Breast cancer has become an increasing concern and is a major global public health burden
The questionnaire was comprised of questions pertaining to knowledge of risk factors (9 items), knowledge of signs and symptoms (8 items), attitudes toward breast cancer prevention (6 item), barriers to breast cancer screening (4 items), and health behaviours related to breast cancer awareness (8 items)
The five outcomes of this study were based on five breast cancer awareness Indonesian scale (BCAS-I) domains: knowledge of risk factors, knowledge of signs and symptoms, attitudes toward breast cancer prevention, barriers to breast cancer screening, and health behaviours related to breast cancer awareness

Summary

Introduction

Breast cancer has become an increasing concern and is a major global public health burden. In Indonesia, a low and middle income countries, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women (Kimman et al, 2012; Youlden et al, 2014). This study aimed to comprehensively investigate the Indonesian women’s level of knowledge about breast cancer risk factors, barriers, attitude and breast cancer screening. Living in an urban area was significantly associated with better attitudes and healthier behaviours related to breast cancer awareness. Conclusion: Urban women had a poorer level of knowledge of breast cancer risk factors compared to women living in more rural areas. The result of this study may reflect inadequate breast cancer awareness campaigns or a lack of breast cancer awareness campaigns These findings suggest that additional education programs aiming to increase awareness and educate the public are needed

Objectives

Methods

Conclusion