Knowledge, attitude and practice of breast self-examination among female university students from 24 low, middle income and emerging economy countries.

Supa Pengpid,Karl Peltzer

doi:10.7314/apjcp.2014.15.20.8637

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the knowledge, attitude and practice of Breast Self-Examination (BSE) among female university students from 24 low, middle income and emerging economy countries. Using anonymous questionnaires, data were collected from 10,810 female undergraduate university students aged 16- 30 (mean age 20.7, SD=2.9) from 25 universities in 24 countries across Asia, Africa and the Americas. Overall, 50.4% of the female students indicated that they knew how to conduct BSE. Among all women, 59.3% had never practiced BSE in the past 12 months, 21.3% 1-2 times, 10.3% 3-10 times, and 9.1% monthly. The proportion of monthly BSE was above 20% in Nigeria and Laos and below 2% in Bangladesh, India, Singapore, Russia, and South Africa. Logistic regression found that BSE importance or positive attitude was highly associated with BSE practice. BSE practices were found to be inadequate and efforts should be made to develop programmes that can increase knowledge related to breast cancer as well as the practice of breast self-examination.

Highlights

Breast cancer is the most prevalent type of cancer in women both in high income and in low and middle income countries (WHO, 2014)
The proportion of monthly Breast Self-Examination (BSE) was above 20% in Nigeria and Laos and below 2% in Bangladesh, India, Singapore, Russia, and South Africa
Logistic regression found that BSE importance or positive attitude was highly associated with BSE practice

Summary

Introduction

Breast cancer is the most prevalent type of cancer in women both in high income and in low and middle income countries (WHO, 2014). The incidence of breast cancer is increasing in low and middle income countries because of increased life expectancy, urbanization and adoption of western lifestyles (WHO, 2014). The only breast cancer screening method that has proven to be effective is mammography screening, but it is only recommended for high resource settings (WHO, 2014). According to the World Health Organization (2014) “There is no evidence on the effect of screening through breast self-examination (BSE). In a number of low and middle income and emerging economy countries BSE is monthly recommended, e.g. South Africa (Cancer Association of South Africa), Jamaica (Jamaica Cancer Society), Mauritius (Cancer Association Mauritius), Namibia (Cancer Association of Namibia), Singapore (Singapore Cancer Society)

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