Awareness Of Breast Cancer And Practice Of Breast Self-examination Among Rural Women In Kwami Local Government Area, Gombe State, Nigeria

Background: Early diagnosis and treatment remain the main effort to reduce breast cancer mortality. Breast self-examination (BSE), professional breast examination (PBE) and mammography are the most effective ways recommended worldwide to detect breast cancer at an early stage when chances of survival are the highest. Objectives: The study aimed to assess the awareness of breast cancer, awareness and practice of breast self-examination among rural women of Kwami Local Government Area in Gombe State, Nigeria. Methodology: A cross-sectional descriptive study of 420 women was conducted. Interviewer-administered questionnaires were used to collect data that were analyzed at the univariate, bivariate, and multivariate levels using SPSS version 23.0 and the p-value of 0.05 was set to be statistically significant. Results: The mean ±SD age of respondents was 37 ± 16.1 years. Only 59.3% of respondents were aware of breast cancer. Of all the participants studied, 83.5% knew about breast self-examination and only 13.7% practiced it. Age, religion, marital status, occupation, education level and tribe were found to have a statistically significant association with breast cancer awareness (p <0.05). Awareness of breast self-examination had a statistically significant association with religion, marital status, occupation, and level of education (p<0.05). Religion, marital status, occupation, level of education, awareness of breast cancer and awareness of breast self-examination had a statistically significant association with the practice of breast self-examination. After adjusting for the confounding effects of each significant variable using logistic regression analysis, religion, occupation, level of education, knowledge of breast cancer, and breast self-examination remained significant predictors of the practice of breast self-examination among respondents. Conclusion: The knowledge of breast cancer is low amongst the rural women. However, majority of the women were aware of breast self-examination, but only a few practiced it. Religion, occupation, level of education, awareness of breast cancer and breast self-examination of the respondents were predictive of the practice of BSE.