ABSTRACT
@#Breast cancer (CA) is the commonest malignancy occurring in women, and constitutes a major disease burden in low income countries of the world, including Nigeria, where the mortality rates are high. A good knowledge of the etiological risk factors, coupled with the uptake of screening tests, are important in attaining prevention of breast CA and also reducing the morbidity and mortality associated with the disease. This study therefore set out to assess the knowledge and attitude of the female students of a tertiary institution in South-western Nigeria towards breast cancer etiology and breast-self-examination (BSE). This was a descriptive cross-sectional study that recruited 350 respondents using multi-stage sampling technique. The study instrument was a pre-tested, semi-structured, self-administered questionnaire. Data analysis was done using IBM SPSS version 20 and results were presented using frequency tables and charts. Chi square tests and logistic regression analyses were also done as appropriate. Majority (80.6%) of the study respondents had heard of breast cancer, 78.4% of which had poor knowledge about breast cancer etiology and about two-thirds of these had a good attitude towards BSE. Only 18 (6.4%) of the 282 respondents who had ever heard of breast CA knew how to perform BSE correctly, while only 159 (56.4%) of them had ever carried out BSE. Age, knowing anyone with breast CA, previous exposure to information on BSE, and previous clinical breast examination were found to have statistically significant association with respondents’ knowledge of, and attitude towards BSE. The study respondents generally had a poor level of knowledge of breast CA etiology, older respondents showed better attitude towards BSE, and only a few knew how to perform BSE correctly. We recommend the early introduction of breast CA prevention education to female students in high school.