Publication:

An assessment of knowledge regarding breast cancer among educated women in Kanpur Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, India

Background Most common female cancer worldwide including India is breast cancer. Awareness about breast cancer is very necessary for early detection and prevention as diagnosis at advanced stages of disease contributes to the high mortality rate. An assessment of existing levels of knowledge regarding cancer is a pre-requisite to find out gaps and to plan for proper educational programmes.

Methods This cross-sectional study was carried out in a women’s college, study subjects were students, female faculty members and female staff.  A structured questionnaire was given, data was collected and analysed.

Results In this study it is found that knowledge regarding risk factors for breast cancer was low, only 47.68% knew that family history predisposes for breast cancer, 28.48% knew late menopause is risk factor. 76.82% of respondents knew that lump in breast is a sign of breast cancer, whereas only 31.13% knew that discharge from nipple is sign of breast cancer. Merely 6.40% of respondents knew the procedure of breast self-examination. Majority of respondents i.e. 54.53% told media as source of information.

Conclusions Regarding breast cancer low level of knowledge was found among the study subjects which suggests that proper information should be provided in colleges, especially health facilities and schools should increase their role in providing related information.