BREAST CANCER KNOWLEDGE AND SELF- EXAMINATION OF NILE UNIVERSITY UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

Abstract

This study was carried out to identify the factors associated with breast cancer knowledge and breast self-examination among the students of Nile university of Nigeria. The survey research design was adopted by physical administration of 80 questionnaire. Also, an electronic mailing of questionnaire was used for the students on vacation through their school electronic mail addresses and designated through purposive sampling techniques. Descriptive statistics, frequencies, and percentages was used to determine the relationship between factors associated with breast cancer knowledge and breast self-examination among the students socio using Statistical Program for Social Science (SPSS) package version 23. The findings showed that Almost all of the students said they have not been taught breast cancer as a topic in school as part of their curriculum while a few of them said they have not been taught about the disease in school this showed that more than half of the respondents which shows that the students who believed early detection can increase survival rate were more likely to have a good knowledge of breast cancer believe that early detection of the disease can increase survival rate. Half of the students have heard of breast self-examination while the other half have never heard of breast cancer.  It was concluded that there are prevalent factors associated with breast cancer knowledge and breast self-examination among the students as there exist a statistically significant association between knowledge of breast cancer, family history of breast cancer, awareness about breast cancer and the belief that early detection increases survival rate. There is need to promote BSE among this study population. It was the recommended that since less than half of the respondents practice BSE, it is recommended that the University clinic should ensure that students have a routine clinical breast exam by health workers whenever they are present to the hospital/clinics and there should be an introduction of a structured health education module course into academic curriculum for students to be informed on important factors that are associated with breast cancer.