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AWARENESS AND PRACTICES OF BREAST CANCER PREVENTIVE MEASURES AMONG WOMEN OF LAHORE, PAKISTAN: A CROSS-SECTIONAL SURVEY

Mahwish Javeed, Razia Bano, Abida Shafiq, Samra Sardar, Dr. Khizar Nabeel Ali

Background: Breast cancer is a top most health problem worldwide. Since Pakistan has very high occurrence of breast cancer in Asia and the major factor behind this high rate is lack of awareness and delay in diagnosis and treatment, any down-staging due to early detection will considerably lessen morbidity as well as treatment cost. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the knowledge of breast cancer risk factors, early threatening signs and screening practices among women and association between socio-demographic variables with breast self-examination performance. Methods: This was a cross sectional study carried out in Lahore, Pakistan with 112 women, which were selected randomly from two selected towns of Lahore. Data were collected by using structured questionnaire. SPSS version 19 was used to analyze the data. Chi square was used to discover the association between socio-demographic variables and BSE practices. Results: Overall awareness of breast cancer risk factors was 32%. Awareness about warning signs of breast cancer was 45%. Seventy two percent women never heard about breast self-examination. Approximately 78% women never performed breast self-examination. Eighty nine percent women did not know the correct technique of performing BSE. Age, education level, occupation and family income were significantly associated (p=<0.001) with BSE performance in this study. Conclusion: This study has shown insufficient knowledge of breast cancer as well as poor screening practices among women which confirms the fact that it is essential to educate the woman about breast cancer. Awareness of particulars about breast cancer will help us to accomplish the common goal- prevention. Keywords: Breast cancer, BSE (Breast self-examination), CBE (Clinical breast examination), Mammography, awareness, practices, Lahore, Pakistan.

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