Knowledge, attitude, and practice of a sample of young female on breast self examination

Muniem Al Dabbagh, Abdul; Hassan Hayawi, Ali; Abdul Rytha, Ragad

	Knowledge, attitude, and practice of a sample of young female on breast self examination
IRAQI JOURNALOF COMMUNITY MEDICINE
Article 1, Volume 20, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 288-295
Authors
Abdul Muniem Al Dabbagh; Ali Hassan Hayawi; Ragad Abdul Rytha
Abstract
Abstract Background: Breast cancer is the commonest malignant tumor in females and it’s a leading cause of cancer death in females in both developed and developing countries secondly to lung cancer. A sharp increase in the incidence of breast cancer was found in younger age groups; still the highest number of cases was between 40 and 50years of age The most frequent method of discovery of breast cancer was mammogram followed by breast self examination. Methodology: A cross sectional study carried out on 1st year college female students with an average age (18-20) years in four colleges in Baghdad city. The data collected through self administered questionnaire constructed for this purpose through the period extended from 3rd April 2004 until 30th November 2004. A convenient sample of 1260 students was included in the study. Results: Students who have higher knowledge level about BSE were very low constituting (8.5%) while those with low knowledge level were (91.5%). High percentage of students (70.1%) wanted to learn BSE and (49.7%) reported that they want to practice it. Recommendations: A wide scale national study about knowledge, attitude and practice of young females about BSE is recommended to provide feedback information on the role of National Iraqi Program on BSE and adopt it accordingly towards achievement of its objective. Since mass media was the main source of gaining knowledge about BSE, its' role should be emphasized on. Keywords: Knowledge, attitude, practice, breast self examination
Keywords
Knowledge; Attitude; Practice; breast self examination

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