Level of Awareness Regarding Breast Cancer and its Screening amongst Indian Teachers

Abstract

A total of 441 women teachers from 8 of the schools located in Delhi, India participated in this cross-sectionalstudy, conducted from July 2007 to February 2008. The mean age was 37.2 years. Some 92.7% of the teacherswere aware of at least one sign or symptom of the disease and 63.0% knew at least one high risk factor. However,only 36.1% had heard of the term breast self examination. Only 13.4% knew the correct frequency of once amonth, only 7.3% the correct position and only 1.36% participants the correct time. This dismal awarenesslevel reflects the fact that none had ever practiced breast self-examination. Similarly, v ery few attended regularclinical breast examination (CBE) or had undergone a mammogram. Only 11.8% were aware of the normallook of the breast and 5.4% of the normal feel. There is clearly a need to increase the level of awareness regardingbreast cancer and its screening amongst teachers in India.