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Knowledge regarding breast cancer and breast self-examination amongst urban females of North India: A cross-sectional study
oleh: Priya Bansal, Anurag Chaudhary, Sangeeta Girdhar, Tiber Jain, Sarit Sharma, Mahesh Satija, Vikram Kumar Gupta, Pranjl Sharma, Surinder Pal Singh
Format: | Article |
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Diterbitkan: | Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2023-01-01 |
Deskripsi
Introduction: In this era of epidemiological transition where noncommunicable diseases are on a significant rise, cancer is a major public health problem globally. Out of all cancers, breast cancer is the most common female cancer worldwide. Aim: To determine the knowledge of breast cancer and its risk factors and breast self-examination (BSE) practice amongst urban women of North India. Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out amongst 370 women aged between 20 and 60 years of age using pretested self-administered questionnaire. The collected information was entered into Microsoft Excel sheet and analysed using SPSS. Results: Mean age of the study participants was 40.3 ± 12.1 years and majority of the study participants (87%) were married. It was seen that the proportion of women who were aware increased as their literacy status increased, and this was statistically significant (P = 0.00). About 18.4% of the participants were aware regarding BSE. The most mentioned reason for not practicing BSE amongst those who were aware was that they considered themselves healthy (63.2%). Conclusions: In the current study, half of the women were aware of breast cancer and few were aware of BSE and very few were practicing BSE. It was seen that women with a higher level of education had better knowledge regarding breast cancer than women with low educational status. For the prevention of breast cancer, women are the most important stakeholder. There is a need to sensitise women regarding risk factors of breast cancer and preventive practices like BSE.