Abstract
Breast cancer continues to claim the lives of hundreds of women all over the world inspite of the existence of simple to perform procedures that could ensure the early detection of breast changes. The study aimed to assess the practice and perceptions towards breast self examination (BSE) among secondary school teachers in Benin City. A cross-sectional study was conducted in July, 2010 among 300 female secondary school teachers in a selected local government area in Benin. An interviewer administered structured English language questionnaire was used for data collection. Data analysis was done using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) with level of significance set as p < 0.05. All (100.0%) had heard of BSE, 79.3% had ever practised (BSE), of which19% performed BSE monthly and 6% knew all steps in the procedure of BSE. Main source of information was the broadcast media. Ignorance of the usefulness of BSE was the most common reason given for not doing BSE. Nonetheless, attitude towards BSE was good for 80% of respondents. There is need for aggressive awareness campaigns among secondary school teachers that will focus on filling knowledge gaps and providing opportunities for guided practice. Key words: Breast cancer, breast self- examination, practice, screening, teachers.
Highlights
In Nigeria, cancer of the breast has overtaken carcinoma of the cervix in hospital incidence, with the prevalence described as 116 cases per 100,000 women per year (Bray et al, 2004; Chan et al, 2009; Gwarzo et al, 2009)
The value for p was set as 39%, being the proportion of women who practiced breast self examination (BSE) in Port-Harcourt, from an earlier study (Jebbin and Adotey, 2004), level of accuracy d was taken as 5% and margin of error z as 1.96 with a non-response rate of 10%
Three hundred teachers participated in the survey
Summary
In Nigeria, cancer of the breast has overtaken carcinoma of the cervix in hospital incidence, with the prevalence described as 116 cases per 100,000 women per year (Bray et al, 2004; Chan et al, 2009; Gwarzo et al, 2009). Detection plays an important role in reducing morbidity and mortality and theoretically, a 95% survival rate could be achieved if diagnosis was made at an early stage of the disease (Tavatiari et al, 2009). Studies have shown that over 90% of breast lumps are detected by women themselves, stressing the importance of breast self examination (Onyije et al, 2010). Mammography has limited application in Nigeria, where facilities and expertise are largely unavailable, breast self examination if properly carried out remains the most cost effective method for the early detection of breast cancer (Chioma and Asuzu, 2007; Onyije et al, 2010; Saludeen et al, 2009).
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