DefinePK

Abstract

Objective: A KAPs analysis was conducted in female students of non-medical origin to assess their basic understanding of breast cancer, its screening modalities and early detection.
Methodology: The female students of various institutes of Islamabad, Pakistan were included in the study by non-probability consecutive sampling. A total of 1000 females studying in 6th grade to Ph.D. were included in the study. A questionnaire having 22 questions on the subject of breast cancer, mammography, Breast self- examination (BSE) and Clinical breast examination (CBE) was shared with the students and their responses were collected for data analysis.
Results: Majority of our study population belong to 20-24 years age group and held a graduate degree. 67.5% of the study population was aware of the term breast cancer. The percentages of understanding of the terms breast self-examination, clinical breast examination, practice of BSE and CBE are 72.5%, 60.4%, 51.8% and 14.2% respectively. Half of the study population was aware of mammography however the understanding about age of commencement of screening mammography (12.7%), frequency of mammography (22.6%) and its availability (33.2%) was poor.
Conclusion: The knowledge regarding breast cancer is high in our population however the understanding of screening modalities and practice of mammography, BSE and CBE is significantly low. These results call for development of strategies to impart basic information regarding breast cancer and its screening to young females to gain maximum benefit.