Knowledge of Breast Cancer Among Urban Women in the South of Peninsular Malaysia

@#Introduction: : Breast cancer (BC) is the most commonly diagnosed cancer globally and it is the leading cause of cancer mortality in Malaysian women. Increasing women knowledge of BC and breast self-examination (BSE) leads to increased compliance in early diagnosis and treatment. This study aims to determine the level of knowledge on BC and its association with socio-demographic characteristics among urban women. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 270 urban women in the South of Peninsular Malaysia using the adapted Breast Cancer Awareness Measure. Data were analyzed through SPSS software version 26.0. Results: Of the participants, 53.7% (n=145) had poor knowledge of BC warning signs, 50.7% (n=137) of BSE and 55.6% (n=150) of risk factors. High education was associated with better BC knowledge on warning signs (p=0.006) and risk factors (p=0.048). Chinese women have poor BC knowledge on warning signs (p=0.005) and BSE (p<0.001) than other ethnicities. Age (p=0.024) and marital status (p=0.028) were statistically significant with BC knowledge on breast self-examination (BSE) while family history of BC (p=0.019) and duration of seeking medical advice (p=0.041) were associated with BC knowledge on the risk factor. Conclusion: The findings of this study may give insight into effective health education strategies for urban women concerning breast cancer awareness.

Partner violence in married women.

Introduction: Violence against women is the highest in Australia, Canada, Israel and South Africa and women make up 40 to 70% of homicide victims. Forced marriage is still practiced in the parts of South Asia, East Asia and Africa and among immigrants to the West from these regions. The objectives of the study were to explore and compare the violence in the married women living in urban and rural areas Material and methods: The study adopted a comparative research approach. The study was conducted on married women of age group between 16-40 years. The population comprised of 60 married women (30 subjects each from urban and rural areas respectively) was drawn by convenient sampling technique. Data was collected through interview, by using socio demographic proforma and structured intimate partner violence questionnaire. Data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: The overall prevalence of violence among women was high. There was no significant difference between rural and urban area with respect to psychological and physical violence. The findings showed that majority of violence in urban area women were more than the rural area women. Conclusion: Women are more frequent victims of violence. Violence is a universal phenomenon, so effective actions should be taken to stop intimate partner violence at no time.

Marital Adjustment among Urban and Rural Women.

In today’s life, adjustment is necessary aspect when we talk about a relationship. This study was conducted to assess and compare the marital adjustment of women in urban and rural areas of Lucknow. It’s a comparative study, conducted in urban and rural areas of Lucknow district over a period of 3 months. Thirty women were interviewed by purposive sampling, 15 each were taken from urban and rural areas of Lucknow. Out of each 15 women, five women had married life between 5 to 10 years, five had 10-15 years and remaining five had married life of above 15 years. The tool used for the data collection was a questionnaire constructed and standardized by PRAMOD KUMAR & Km. KANCHANA ROHATGI. Data was analyzed by using the software SPSS, version 17.0. and Students’t Test. The result indicates that urban women have good marital adjustment and rural women have poor marital adjustment and this finding is statistically significant as well as meaningful. It is also found that marital adjustment was better in women having short married life of 5-10 years and those belonging to higher socio-economic status.

Overweight and Obesity among Women by Economic Stratum in Urban India.

Using data of the third round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2005-2006, this study examined the prevalence of overweight and obesity among women from different economic strata in urban India. The study used a separate wealth index for urban India constructed using principal components analysis (PCA). The result shows that prevalence of overweight and obesity is very high in urban areas, more noticeably among the non-poor households. Furthermore, overweight and obesity increase with age, education, and parity of women. The results of multinomial logistic regression show that non-poor women are about 2 and 3 times more at risk of being overweight and obese respectively. Marital status and media exposure are the other covariates associated positively with overweight and obesity. Thus, the growing demand which now appears before the Government or urban health planners is to address this rising urban epidemic with equal importance as given to other issues in the past.