Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Breast Self-examination Among Female University Students from 24 Low, Middle Income and Emerging Economy Countries

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the knowledge, attitude and practice of Breast Self-Examination(BSE) among female university students from 24 low, middle income and emerging economy countries. Usinganonymous questionnaires, data were collected from 10,810 female undergraduate university students aged 16-30 (mean age 20.7, SD=2.9) from 25 universities in 24 countries across Asia, Africa and the Americas. Overall,50.4% of the female students indicated that they knew how to conduct BSE. Among all women, 59.3% had neverpracticed BSE in the past 12 months, 21.3% 1-2 times, 10.3% 3-10 times, and 9.1% monthly. The proportion ofmonthly BSE was above 20% in Nigeria and Laos and below 2% in Bangladesh, India, Singapore, Russia, andSouth Africa. Logistic regression found that BSE importance or positive attitude was highly associated withBSE practice. BSE practices were found to be inadequate and efforts should be made to develop programmesthat can increase knowledge related to breast cancer as well as the practice of breast self-examination.