Knowledge, attitude and practice of breast self-examination among female university students from 24 low, middle income and emerging economy countries.
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.
ASEAN Institute for Health Development, Mahidol University, Salaya, Phutthamonthon, Nakhonpathom, Thailand E-mail : karl.pel@mahidol.ac.th.
Supa
S
Pengpid
Karl
K
Peltzer
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000349:Africa; D000569:Americas; D001208:Asia; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control; D016504:Breast Self-Examination / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D020380:Needs Assessment; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011203:Poverty; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult