Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Breast Cancer Screening Methods Among Female Patients in Primary Healthcare Centers in Najran, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practice of breast cancer screening methods among female patients attending five primary healthcare centers in Najran, Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 500 female patients, and a direct interview questionnaire was used to collect data. Our results indicated a low knowledge about breast cancer, breast self-examination, mammogram and clinical breast examination was 54.4%, 56%, 90.4%, and 83.8%, respectively. Nineteen percent of patients demonstrated a high knowledge of breast self-examination. Breast self-examination was performed by 35% of patients, whereas 15% of patients received mammograms and 19.8% clinical breast examinations. The most common barrier for screening methods of breast cancer was that patients were unaware of half of the screening methods. A total of 20.6% of women did not perform breast self-examinations because they were not well trained, and 26.4% of women did not receive clinical breast examinations because there was no female doctor available. The main source of information among the women patients was social media (52.4%), whereas 8.8% received information through their healthcare provider. In summary, the majority of women demonstrated poor knowledge about breast cancer and screening methods. Additional effort should be put forth through women’s healthcare providers to increase the awareness of breast cancer screening. That means we need to continue emphasizing the importance of primary healthcare for early detection of breast cancer in the early stages.