Conhecimento, prática e atitude sobre o autoexame das mamas de mulheres de uma cidade do Nordeste do Brasil

Abstract

Artigo originalResumo OBJETIVO: avaliar o conhecimento, a atitude e a prática do autoexame das mamas (AEM) em mulheres do município de São Luís (MA) e os fatores sociodemográficos relacionados. MÉTODOS: estudo transversal, prospectivo, com amostragem por conglomerados, no qual foram incluídas 552 mulheres de 14 setores censitários em São Luís, no período de Janeiro a Setembro de 2003. O conhecimento, a atitude e a prática (variáveis dependentes) foram avaliados pela análise das respostas das mulheres em "adequado" ou "inadequado". As principais variáveis independentes foram: idade, escolaridade, renda familiar, situação conjugal e status menopausal. Foi realizado o teste do χ 2 para a associação entre variáveis categóricas e a mensuração do Odds Ratio (OR) bruto e ajustado após análise multivariada por regressão logística. RESULTADOS: embora 1/3 da população estudada não tivesse conhecimento do AEM, o grupo de mulheres que eram informadas sobre a existência do exame possuía conhecimento (60,9%), prática (59,5%) e atitude (90%) adequados. O histórico familiar para câncer de mama (8,9%) não esteve associado a maior conhecimento e prática. A mídia mostrou-se de grande importância (63,6%) na disseminação da informação do AEM. Após análise multivariada, a mulher com parceiro (OR=1,9) apresentou maior adequação do conhecimento; o grupo de mulheres com idade maior que 50 anos (OR=11,7) teve melhor atitude quanto ao AEM; a escolaridade maior que cinco anos (OR=2) e mulher com parceiro (OR=1,7) estiveram associadas à prática mais correta do AEM. CONCLUSÃO: a maioria das pacientes conhece e pratica o AEM em São Luís e a atitude delas frente ao procedimento é extremamente positiva. Houve uma grande participação da mídia na propagação da informação sobre o AEM.Abstract PURPOSE: to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of breast self-examination (BSE) of women from the municipality of São Luís (MA), Brazil, and associated socio-demographic variables. METHODS: prospective and cross-sectional study, with conglomerate sampling, in which 552 women from 14 census sections of São Luís were included during the period from January to September 2003. The knowledge, attitude and practice (dependent variables) were evaluated by means of analysis of the responses of the women as "adequate" or "inadequate". The main independent variables were: age, schooling, family income and marital and menopausal status. The χ 2 test was used to determine the association between categorical variables and the measurement of the crude/adjusted Odds Ratio (OR) after multivariate analysis by means of logistic regression. RESULTS: although 1/3 of the studied population did not know about BSE, the group of women who were informed about it showed adequate knowledge (60.9%), practice (59.5%) and attitude (90%). The family history of breast cancer (8.9%) was not associated with better knowledge and practice. The media (63.6%) was found to be important in disseminating information about BSE. After multivariate analysis, women with a partner (OR=1.9) prese...

Knowledge about Risk Factors for Breast Cancer and Having a Close Relative with Cancer Affect the Frequency of Breast Self-Examination Performance

“…BSE performance was common among women aged 30-59 years, whereas those who never performed BSE were mainly younger than 30 years or older than 60 years. In contrast to the present results, a previous Brazilian study performed in the state of Maranhão revealed better knowledge about BSE among women aged over 50, but did not identify differences of BSE performance among different age groups (Brito et al, 2010). Furthermore, contrary to present results, in an Iranian study, women younger than 30 years performed BSE, whereas women aged 30-49 years performed it less often (Tilaki and Auladi, 2015).…”

“…Women with a higher educational level tended to perform BSE more often. This is in agreement with previous studies carried out in Brazil, Nigeria, India and Iran (Brito et al, 2010;Oluwatosin et al, 2010;Paul et al, 2015;Tilaki and Auladi, 2015). However, in the present study, educational level was not an independent variable of the regression model.…”

“…It is noteworthy that in the group of women who performed BSE every month, most of them were married. A positive association between BSE performance and living in any type of union was also reported in previous studies (Brito et al, 2010;Oluwatosin et al, 2010;Tilaki and Auladi, 2015). Like in the case of the educational level, marital status was not identified as an independent variable in the regression analysis.…”

“…A previous Brazilian study did not identify positive association between family history of breast cancer and BSE performance (Brito et al, 2010). However, this study assessed family history of breast cancer, whereas the present results were based on women's knowledge about any close relative with cancer.…”

“…Few Brazilian studies have assessed women's knowledge about BSE and underlying reasons for its performance: Most descriptive Brazilian studies about BSE, that mainly focused on intervention including small groups of women, have been conducted in southern regions of the country (Nascimento et al, 2009;Araujo et al, 2010;Kim et al, 2010;Grego et al, 2011;Silva and Riul, 2011;Gomes et al, 2012). In contrast, few studies have been aimed at the underlying sociodemographic factors of BSE knowledge and performance (Brito et al, 2010).…”