Comparative Study on the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Self Breast Examination and Breast Cancer Screening Between First and Second Class Women of Kitwe District

Kennedy Zimba

doi:10.11648/j.ijcocr.20180305.11

Abstract

Breast cancer (BC) is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths in both developing and developed countries. One major contributor to high morbidity is late diagnosis which is due to lack of knowledge of the risk factors, causes, early signs and symptoms and simple screening tools like Self Breast Examination (SBE) and Clinical Breast Examination (CBE). The aim of this study was to compare level of knowledge of BC, CBE and SBE as well as attitude and practice towards CBE and SBE between women in rural and urban areas. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 300 women who were residents of Parklands (Urban area) and Kawama (Rural area). Equal numbers of women from each area were recruited into the study. All the 300 questionnaires were properly filled and returned. Data was entered and analysed in SPSS version 20.0 software. The majority of participants (34.3%) were between the age of 36 and 45 years and resided in Parklands (59.2%). All the participants (100%) had heard about CBE but only 87.3% of these respondents were able to explain correctly what it is (53.7% urban and 42.7% rural). Of all the respondents, 57.7% had heard about Self Breast Examination before the day of the interview. The most common source of information of CBE was ‘friends’ (77%). Furthermore, 49.7% of the subjects had good knowledge about BC and CBE, while 28% had poor knowledge. Of all the women, 45% had good knowledge about BSE while 53.7% had poor knowledge. In addition, 96.3% of the respondents showed good attitude toward CBE and 3.7% showed poor attitude. Level of education showed significant relationship with Practice of CBE (P – value: 0.00), Practice of SBE (P- Value: 0.00), level of knowledge of CBE (P – value: 0.00) and level of knowledge of SBE (P – Value: 0.00). Lastly, attitude towards CBE did not seem to show any significant relationship with practice of CBE (P – Value: 0.522). The findings of the study showed that most of rural than urban women had poor knowledge about BC, CBE and SBE. Educational programs on breast cancer and SBE should be conducted in print and electronic media using the local languages to reach out to the women in rural areas.

Highlights

8 (2.7%) of the participants had no formal education (0% from Parklands and 100% from Kawama). This finding is interesting because the high number of participants with formal education could indicate that these individuals are well informed about breast cancer and the importance of being screened for it
Respondents from Parklands could be more knowledgeable about BCS and Self Breast Examination (SBE) since most of them had attained the highest level of education
A significant difference in knowledge levels on breast cancer, Clinical Breast Examination and Self Breast Examination was observed between women from urban and rural areas

Summary

Introduction

Breast cancer (BC) is a malignant tumour in the glandular tissues of the breast Such tumours, called carcinomas, are the product of the process called carcinogenesis, which is basically the process of transformation of normal cells to neoplastic cells by causing permanent genetic alterations, most frequently to the cell repair genes such as p53 and there is no control in the proliferation of cells. Called carcinomas, are the product of the process called carcinogenesis, which is basically the process of transformation of normal cells to neoplastic cells by causing permanent genetic alterations, most frequently to the cell repair genes such as p53 and there is no control in the proliferation of cells This enables a single abnormal cell to multiply at a rapid rate. A study conducted in Canada estimated that about 19, 000 new cases of BC are diagnosed in Canada each year, and 5, 300 Canadian women die from the disease annually [5]

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