Breast Self-Examination as Cancer Breast Prevention Practice and Awareness among Middle-aged Women: A Hospital-based Study.

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer has become an epidemic in South Asian countries due to a dramatic increase in incidence and mortality rate. Awareness about cancer breast and practice of screening methods is a significant approach to achieve earlier detection of cancer.

Objectives: This hospital-based study aims to evaluate the knowledge about risk factors, signs, symptoms of cancer breast, and factors influencing the practice of breast self-examination (BSE) among middle-aged women.

Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at a medical college hospital, Chennai, South India. One hundred and fifty women in the age group of 40-60 years completed a pretested questionnaire to assess the knowledge of risk factors, signs, screening methods of cancer breast, and domains of health belief model (HBM) to determine the factors influencing the performance of BSE. Percentage responses were calculated and analyzed using the Chi-square test.

Results: The study participants considered lack of breastfeeding (84.6%) as the important risk factor and breast lump (85.2%) as a prominent symptom. While 85.6% identified BSE as an important screening practice of cancer breast, 75.4% did not know the correct technique of BSE. Perceived severity of developing cancer breast would endanger social and family life (P < 0.022), Perceived benefit of BSE in early detection of cancer breast (P < 0.001), and perceived barrier of ignorance about proper technique of BSE (P < 0.01) were the significant responses on the constructs of HBM among women who were willing to perform BSE.

Conclusion: Our study stresses upon cancer screening by BSE and highlights the need of educating women on the practice of BSE.