A cross-sectional research of breast self-examination awareness and practice in rural women in central India

 Vaibhav Mehta, Dipesh Patel

NAMO Medical Institute and Research Center, Sayali Road, Silvassa Dadra & Nagar Haveli, India

ABSTRACT

Breast carcinoma is the most frequent carcinoma in females around the world, and it can be diagnosed early with self-examination. BSE is a low-cost, easy-to-use, noninvasive approach for detecting breast carcinomas early. As a result, understanding the process and practicing it consistently could protect females from severe morbidity and mortality from breast carcinoma. This research compared the knowledge and practice of BSE among females in Central India before and after they participated in the survey. This six-month cross-sectional research took place in the Tertiary Healthcare Centre’s Rural Health Training Centre (RHTC) service region in Central India. The research comprised 500 females who were over the age of 30. A questionnaire was utilized to collect data on understanding of breast carcinoma and BSE, as well as attitudes and BSE practices. The importance of BSE, how it's done, and how often it's done were all explained to the females. The same residences were visited again after a week, and females were asked if they practiced BSE, the actions they took, any findings they had, and whether they had contacted a surgeon. Three hundred and eighty (78%) of the 500 subjects were aware of breast carcinoma. Breast Self-Examination was known by 174 people (35%). (BSE). After receiving BSE education, the percentage of females carry outing BSE jumped from 21% to 85%. After taking part in the research and learning about BSE, the number of females who don't know anything about BSE dropped from 74 percent to 12 percent. BSE is regarded as a low-cost, fast, non-invasive, and non-hazardous technique. One of the most common reasons why females do not conduct BSE is a lack of knowledge about how to do it. Efforts should be made to develop educational initiatives to improve females’ understanding and practice of breast self-examination.

Keywords:

Awareness, Breast self examination, Breast carcinoma, Females