Awareness and Knowledge of Breast Cancer Risk Factors, Symptoms and Screening Among Females in a Hospital in North India

Abstract

BACKGROUNDBreast cancer is the second most common cancer in the world and by far the most frequent cancer among women with an estimated 1.67 million new cancer cases diagnosed in 2012. Breast cancer ranks as the fifth cause of death from cancer overall (522,000 deaths) and while it is the most frequent cause of cancer death in women in less developed regions (324,000 deaths), it is now the second cause of cancer death in more developed regions after lung cancer.

Evaluation of Breast Cancer (BC) Awareness among Female University Students in Zarqa University, Jordan

“…The questionnaire was adapted and developed (by the deletion and adaptation of items and scales) from the literature (5,15,18,20,22,23,25,26,28,29,31,32).…”

“…that BC becoming a global health-care interest, many researchers have been conducted worldwide to explore female's beliefs and knowledge about BC, and investigate their awareness about BC (1,5,(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32). Most of these studies were in developed countries; only Suleiman (1) studied the awareness and attitude toward BC in Jordan, and his results showed that the study sample (Jordan university female students) had an insufficient awareness of BC.…”

Awareness about breast cancer among women aged 15 years and above in urban slums: a cross sectional study

“…Eighteen (22.5%) participants belonged to 21-30 years' age group, whereas only 6 (7.5%) belonged to 51-60 years' age group. 10 In another study the mean age of study participants was 36.34 years. Majority of the women were in age group of 20-30 years (35.6%).…”

“…In one study the majority 56 (70%) of our study participants were housewives, 14 (17.5%) were employed in government sector, 6 (7.5%) had private jobs, whereas 4 (5%) were unemployed. 10 The awareness about early signs of breast among the study population was very poor. Only 35% of the study populations were aware about the early danger signs and 66% were unaware.…”

“…In another study 42 (52.5%) of our study participants were illiterate, 4 (5%) had primary education, 10 (12.5%) had secondary education, 2 (2.5%) had attended colleges, 16 (20%) were graduates, whereas 6 (7.5%) were post graduates. 10 In one study 45.6% women were studied upto primary school. Only 1.2% women were educated graduate and above, while one third (33.8%) women were illiterate.…”