Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences
ISSN: Online 1993-6052ISSN: Print 1683-8831
Abstract
Nigeria, even though rich by natural endowments, is at the individual human level, a resource-poor country of very many poor people who cannot afford the cost of most health care, including the preventive ones. This latter, should be its thrust in health service provision, especially for the cancers. Studies in these areas are therefore very essential. This is a descriptive and exploratory study to identify knowledge, attitude and practice of self-breast examination among the female students of the University of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Two hundred and twenty eight students were selected by stratified random sampling from their different faculties and studied through a validated questionnaire called Female Self-Breast Examination (FSBE) inventory. The age range of the students was between 18-32 years; 221 (96.9%) of them were single and 7 (3.1%) married. One hundred and ninty five (85.5%) of the students knew about cancers and 225 (98.7%) have heard about breast cancer. Breast cancer was by far the most well known female cancer, followed remotely by the equally malignant cervical cancer (31 or 13.6%). One hundred and forty eight (64.9%) heard of breast cancer from television and 188 (82.5%) have heard about self-breast examination.One hundred and twenty two (53.2%) of the students knew what self-breast examination is used for while 106 (46.8%) did not. The knowledge is not deep, however as only 64 (28%) knew the interval for self-breast examination while 11 (25%) practice self-breast examination regularly. One hundred and swenty one (75%) of the students will like to be taught how to do self-breast examination. Neither age nor course/area of study has influence either on the knowledge of the student concerning breast cancer or on their self-breast examination. There is urgent need for dissemination of better information on self-breast examination to secondary school students and students in tertiary institutions if we are going to make any headway in the prevention of breast cancer in Nigeria by this only workable avenue to that goal.
How to cite this article:
C. Chioma and S.R.N. Asuzu . Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Self-Breast Examination among the Female Students of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36478/pjssci.2007.400.402
URL: https://www.makhillpublications.co/view-article/1683-8831/pjssci.2007.400.402