Abstract:
Breast cancer is one of the most common
malignancies among the women and second cause of
cancer death in globally, with the prevalence of more than
one million in worldwide annually. The fatal outcome
is most probably due to the presenting at late stage of
Breast cancer.
A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among
269 nursing students in Sri Lankan Allied Health Sciences
to assess the influence of socio demographic factors and
undergraduate training on knowledge of breast cancer and
practice of early detection measures. Data was collected
using by a self-administered questionnaire. Nearly equal
proportion of participants was in 1st year (33.1%), 2nd
year (30.9%) and 3rd year (36.1%). The mean age of the
participants was 21.5 years and nearly female and male
ratio was 2:1.
Knowledge and practice was scored as good, adequate and
poor. Nearly one third (30.9%) and two third (61.7%) of
the female participants had good and adequate level of
overall knowledge on breast cancer respectively. However,
nearly half of the female participants not aware on early
detection and preventive measure of breast cancer.
Only 13.6% of female participants had good practice on
early detection measures of breast cancer whereas this
number was little high (18.5%) in male participants.
Among the female participants 40% were practicing self breast examination on monthly basis, 19% were practicing
yearly basis and 31% were not practicing. Furthermore,
29.1% and 12.7% of female participants were undergone
clinical breast examination and mammogram respectively.
The knowledge and practice level of breast cancer was
influenced by the age, undergraduate training and year
of study of the participants.
