Breast self examination practices among female secondary school teachers in a rural community in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The objective of the study was to assess female secondary school teachers’ knowledge and attitude of breast self examination (BSE) and to describe the extent of practice of breast self examination among them. This study employed a descriptive design and data was collected with the aid of validated semi structured questionnaire from 100 female teachers in all the five secondary schools in Oko, Oyo State, and analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The result showed that 82% of the respondents were aware of breast self examination practices and their source of this information was from mass media (55%) and friends (25%). Fifty-four respondents had poor knowledge of BSE and 48% had negative attitude towards practice of BSE and majority (62%) had a low practice. The study however, revealed that majority of the respondents who practice BSE do not know what to look for. The results further showed that, there is no significant relationship between age of the respondents and their awareness (X2 = 8.322; p = 0.0800; df = 4) and knowledge (X2 = 14.501; p = 0.264 and df = 8) of breast self examination. This study concluded that there is poor knowledge and attitude towards BSE practice among the secondary school teachers in Oko community and with unsatisfactory practice. It therefore, suggests that breast awareness campaign and self efficacy development is important for teachers in secondary schools to aid early detection and better prognosis of breast cancer in this community, and this will have a multiplier effect on female secondary school girls.