BREAST CANCER: CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY OF KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE REGARDING BREAST SELF EXAMINATION AMONG FEMALE MEDICAL STUDENTS IN TAIF
Breast cancer is the most common of all female cancers in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Different studies conducted in the kingdom have shown that knowledge of females regarding breast cancer is poor. Aim of the study was to determine knowledge, attitude and practice among Saudi female medical university students towards Breast Self Examination (BSE) and also to explore their knowledge about breast cancer.
METHODS:
An observational cross–sectional study was conducted at faculty of Medicine; Taif University during October 2013. Sample size was 378 with mean age of 19.9±1.5. A self administrated questionnaire was used to obtain data about knowledge, attitude and practice towards BSE and knowledge about breast cancer. Data were collected and fed to SPSS version 16. Shape of distribution for numerical data was tested using one sample kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Chi-Square test& Fissure Exact Test (FET) was used for testing relation between categorical variable while correlation analysis was used to test the strength of relation between numeric variables.
RESULTS:
The study revealed that only 8.2% of participants had good overall knowledge about breast cancer and BSE. Although 66% of the study sample had positive attitude towards BSE; only 17% reported that they practice BSE monthly. A significant positive moderate correlation was found between overall knowledge score and attitude towards BSE. (r = 0.449& p = 0.000). The same was for the frequency of BSE practice but it was found to be in a weak magnitude, (r = 0.223& p = 0.000)
CONCLUSIONS:
Although there was lack of knowledge about breast cancer and BSE yet positive attitude towards BSE was encouraging. Most female medical students in our sample did not perform BSE or perform it irregularly.