Practice of female population towards breast cancer: An experience at a tertiary care hospital in Rawalpindi

Background:

Breast cancer is the most frequent malignancy of women worldwide. Screening programs based on routine mammography are not feasible for  countries with limited resources. Breast Health Global Initiative proposes breast cancer awareness and Breast Self Examination (BSE) as a means of early detection in developing world.Objectives:

To assess the awareness about breast self examination (BSE) and coverage of breast screening investigations.Methods:

A cross sectional study was carried out at Holy Family Hospital, a tertiary care health facility at Rawalpindi interviewing 1000 randomly selected adult females among the patients and their accompanying attendants, excluding patients with breast complaints. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire.Results:

The average age of participants was 32 years, majority of them (88.6%) were married, house wives (88.8%) with some education and urban dwellers with middle socioeconomic status. Only 28.3% (n=235) of the females knew how to do a BSE and 27.6% practiced it. The main reason for not doing a BSE was lack of knowledge about it. About 15% (n=132) thought that they don’t need to do a BSE and another 15% said that they don’t have a breast complaint so it was useless to do an examination. Only 12.7% (n=105) had a breast clinical examination by a doctor which was when they had a breast problem or in pregnancy. An even less number (4.6%, n=38) had a breast investigation (mammography n=14, FNAC n=8, others=14). Though there was unanimous agreement (88%, n=730) among females that early detection of breast cancer can lead to a favorable outcome.Conclusion:

Despite wide agreement over the need for early detection of breast cancer, the knowledge and practice of BSE is very low and the coverage of screening investigations is scarce. Effective health education is needed to improve practice of BSE for early detection of breast cancer.