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Knowledge regarding breast cancer and breast self-examination amongst urban females of North India: A cross-sectional study
Priya Bansal, Anurag Chaudhary, Sangeeta Girdhar, Tiber Jain, Sarit Sharma, Mahesh Satija, Vikram Kumar Gupta, Pranjl Sharma, Surinder Pal Singh
Department of Community Medicine, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab, India
Correspondence Address:
Priya Bansal,
Department of Community Medicine, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Old Campus, Civil Lines, Ludhiana, Punjab
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None DOI: 10.4103/JME.JME_115_22
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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.
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