Increasing breast cancer awareness and breast examination practices among women through health education and capacity building of primary healthcare providers: a pre-post intervention study in low socioeconomic area of Mumbai, India (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of Medical Science And clinical Research, 2020
Background: Breast cancer (BC) continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality throughout the world. Early detection and treatment of BC increases the chances of survival. According to Breast Health Global Initiative guidelines for low and middle income countries, diagnosing BC early by promoting breast self-awareness, clinical breast examination (CBE) and resource adapted mammographic screening will reduce BC mortality. Methodology: A hospital based cross sectional study was conducted in semi-urban area of District Srinagar. Women of reproductive age group (25-45 years) were interviewed after taking their consent. A total of 189 women were interviewed using a pre-structured questionnaire. Results: In our study, majority of women were in the age group of 31-35 years (32.8%), illiterate (37.5%), belonging to joint families (70.1%) and married (75.1%). 53.4% women had heard about BC, 58.4% women had heard about BSE and 8.5% women had ever practiced BSE. Conclusion: Overall the knowledge, awareness and practices were poor among the women interviewed. There is a need for imparting awareness regarding the preventability and early detection of breast cancer through breast self-examination and thus indirectly decreasing the morbidity and mortality.
Breast cancer awareness among women in Vikhroli: a suburban area of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health
The incidence rate of breast cancer is approximately three times higher in urban areas as compared to rural areas. The incidence rates are 33 and 32.1 per 100, 000 women respectively in the greater metropolitan areas of Mumbai and Chennai whereas the rates are 24.4 and 25.5 per 100,000 women respectively in smaller cities like Pune and Bhopal. The incidence rate is 7.7 in rural areas of Barshi while it is double in Barshi town (15 per 100,000 women). 3 This situation is attributed to lack of awareness ABSTRACT Background: Breast cancer, the second most common cancer among Indian women, accounts for seven percent of global burden of the disease. Survival rate among women with breast cancer is very poor because most of them sought treatment in advanced stage of the disease. Lack of awareness about the disease and poor facilities of screening programme may be the reason in delay for treatment. To determine the awareness about breast cancer among women in Vikhroli-a suburban area of Mumbai Methods: A community based cross sectional study is carried out in Vikhroli, a suburban area of Mumbai. Quota sampling method was used to select and include 235 women in the study. Semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect the information on breast cancer. Tabular presentation, chi square and contingency coefficients were used for data analysis. Results: Though the respondents have heard about breast cancer, they do not have in-depth knowledge about risk factors, signs and symptoms and methods of early detection. Socioeconomic status differentials are found in knowledge about breast cancer and the two are weakly associated. Conclusions: The awareness about breast cancer is low amongst women in this community. There is a need for awareness generation programs to educate women about breast cancer, propagation of correct messages and promote early detection.
The Internet Journal of Public Health
BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is responsible for 10.4% of the global burden of cancers in women and half of this occurs in developing countries. In the sphere of cancer control, much would be achieved if breast cancer were to be detected early. Since a large proportion of patients in India present with advanced disease, any down-staging due to early detection will considerably reduce treatment cost as well as morbidity even if mortality is unaffected. This can be achieved by breast health awareness and adherence to screening practices. OBJECTIVE: The aims of this cross-sectional study were to determine the level of knowledge regarding breast cancer and to measure breast self-examination (BSE) performance in a group of 80 women aged 40 years and above. Additionally we also intended to demonstrate the correct method of BSE performance to each woman included in our study individually and privately. METHODS: This was a cross sectional study conducted over a period of two months commencing on August 1 st 2009 and ending on 30 th September 2009. 80 women were interviewed by means of a structured questionnaire (after obtaining written informed consent) in the surgical outpatient department of the K.J.Somaiya Medical College, Sion, Mumbai. The questionnaire consisted of socio-demographic variables, breast cancer risk factors and protective factors and knowledge and practice of BSE. Further, attitude towards BSE was also evaluated. The data were analyzed by descriptive studies, chi square test and analysis of variance in order to find out the P value. The interview was followed by an interactive session where each woman was individually and privately educated on breast self-examination by the investigators themselves in the presence of a nurse. RESULTS: Breast cancer awareness was found to be 52% in this group of women even though 95% women claimed to have heard of the disease. Only 12% of all women had received information about breast cancer from health professionals while a majority (60%) stated their source of information to be family and friends. Level of breast cancer knowledge was significantly associated with age (younger women more aware than older), income (women belonging to higher income group found to be more aware than those who were economically deprived), literacy (graduates and post graduates more knowledgeable), parity (women bearing lesser number of children being more aware), occupation (teachers and businesswomen being the most aware versus farmers who were the least aware). 38% women had never heard of BSE and among those that had heard of it, 15% were regular while 23% were irregular performers. Thus performance of BSE was found to be inadequate in this group. Not knowing the correct method was the most frequently reported reason for non performance.
2021
Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer in the world, India accounting for largest estimated deaths. Women present with advanced stages at which little benefit is derived from therapy resulting in poor survival. Women from poor sectors are at more risk because of inadequate knowledge and health care approach. Increasing their awareness can help in early detection and alter their treatment seeking attitude thus improving the survival rates. In order to assess the same, a Cross Sectional Study was conducted in 2015 among 393 poor urban women between the ages of 18-45 years, residing in Khasbag, Belagavi. Awareness of breast cancer, risk factors showed that 11.2% had poor knowledge, 57.5% had fair knowledge and 31.3% had good knowledge. With respect to signs and symptoms of breast cancer 71% had good knowledge, 27.7% had fair knowledge while only 1.3% had poor knowledge. Majority of the women had good overall knowledge (60.1%) and attitude (91.6%) levels. Most of them (97.2%) showed...
BMC Women's Health, 2020
Background Breast cancer (BC) is leading cancer among women in India accounting for 27% of all cancers among women. Factors that make the policymakers and public health system worried are rising incidence of breast cancer in India and more importantly high death rates among breast cancer patients. One of the leading causes of high breast cancer deaths is lack of awareness and screening leading to the late presentation at an advanced stage. Therefore, the current research aimed to understand the knowledge of breast cancer symptoms and risk factors among women in a low socio-economic area of Mumbai. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted at Prabhadevi, Mumbai and primary data was collected from 480 women aged 18–55 years. Structured questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data pertaining to awareness, signs and symptoms of breast cancer. Bivariate and multivariate regression techniques were used for understanding of the socio-demographic differentials in breast cancer aw...
Breast cancer awareness among women in an urban setup in Western India
Indian Journal of Medical and Paediatric Oncology, 2018
Introduction: Breast cancer is a leading cause of death among women globally. Better outcomes for patients can be ensured by early detection and treatment. Early detection requires a high degree of awareness about the various aspects of cancer including etiology, risk factors, signs and symptoms, and breast self-examination (BSE) practices. The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge and awareness related to breast cancer along with willingness for treatment, among women in an urban setup in Western India. Materials and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study with 500 women belonging to the age group of 18–70 years residing in an urban area of Mumbai. Data were obtained through the use of a structured questionnaire over a period of 6 months (April–September 2016). Results: Over half of the respondents (71.42%) knew the symptoms of breast cancer. Awareness regarding the risk factors was varied. Although most (85.71%) of the respondents knew about BSE, contrastingly ve...
Journal of Evolution of Medical and Dental Sciences
BACKGROUND Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in the world and by far the most frequent cancer among women with an estimated 1.67 million new cancer cases diagnosed in 2012. Breast cancer ranks as the fifth cause of death from cancer overall (522,000 deaths) and while it is the most frequent cause of cancer death in women in less developed regions (324,000 deaths), it is now the second cause of cancer death in more developed regions after lung cancer. AIM To assess the awareness and knowledge about various risk factors, symptoms and screening methods of breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 80 adult females. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire, which included questions on socio-demographic data, knowledge of various risk factors, symptoms and screening of breast cancer. RESULTS The mean age of participants was 39.25 years with 42.5% aged 31 to 40 years. Majority 60% participants had a poor knowledge about various risk factors of breast cancer. No participant could correctly identify all the seven symptoms mentioned in the questionnaire. Maximum of five symptoms of breast cancer were identified by only 17.5%. Majority 60% participants had not heard about Breast Self-Examination (BSE), only 5% participants had heard about BSE and were regular performers. None of the participants had clinical breast examination in the past year and only 7.5% participants had heard of mammography. CONCLUSION The present study points to the insufficient knowledge of female participants about various risk factors and symptoms of breast cancer. Knowledge about Breast Self-Examination, clinical breast examination and mammography was also not satisfactory.
Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention : APJCP, 2015
The present study concerns the effectiveness of an educational intervention for improving knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of breast cancer early detection among target group women (TGW) in the district of Gampaha, Sri Lanka. The study was a community-based intervention. Two medical officer of health areas in Gampaha district were selected using random sampling as intervention (IA) and control (CA). Public health midwives (PHMs) in the IA were exposed to the educational intervention first, conducted the same among the TGW through PHMs. KAP was assessed using an interviewer- administrated questionnaire among 260 TGW from each area selected using cluster sampling before and six months after the intervention. The overall median scores for KAP among TGW in IG increased significantly from pre intervention level of 54% (IQR: 46-59%), 50% (IQR: 41-59%), and 0% (IQR: 0-20%) to post intervention level of 77% (IQR: 72-82%), 68% (IQR: 59- 76 %) and 40% (IQR: 20-60%) respectively. In CG...
International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health, 2021
Background: A significant proportion of women present in advanced stages of breast cancer due to lack of awareness and non-availability of preventive health checkups. Annual clinical breast examination (CBE) in women aged 40-60 years is estimated to reduce mortality in India comparable to that achieved by biennial mammography at considerably low cost. Aim of the project was to encourage women aged 30-70 years to regularly undergo annual CBE.Methods: The five year project was implemented in Mumbai in an estimated population of 15120 distributed in slums and low income group buildings. The beneficiaries of the project were women aged 30-70 years. Two Interventions, i.e. breast cancer education and screening were implemented by the project. List of women eligible for breast cancer screening, was used to track the utilisation of services.Results: Over the period of five years, 14249 one-one health education interactions took place and fourteen group health education sessions were conduc...
Breast cancer is by far the most common cancer in women worldwide, both in the developed and developing countries. In low- and middle-income countries the incidence has been rising up steadily in the last years due to increase in life expectancy, increase urbanization and adoption of western lifestyles. Currently there is not sufficient knowledge on the causes of breast cancer; therefore, early detection of the disease remains the cornerstone of breast cancer control. Breast Cancer is the most common cancer in women in India. One woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, in India, every 4 minutes. One