Breast cancer awareness among women living in Meena District in Aden

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to determine the behaviors of women towards the method of early detection of breast cancer in Aden. It is a cross-sectional study conducted by direct interview with 157 women living in Meena districts in Aden. One hundred and fifty seven women, age between 20 to 60 years with mean age 37 years, participated in the study; the university graduates 54 [34.4%] secondary school graduates 33 [21%], primary school 26 [16.6%] and illiterates 44 [28%]. The knowledge of breast cancer was most frequently obtained from the media in all groups of women, except 11% of the illiterate women who had no knowledge of breast cancer. The overall majority of women were not performing breast self-examination .The likelihood of detecting a mass and not visiting doctor was frequent among the illiterates and secondary school graduates 66%and 48% respectively. The knowledge of curability of breast cancer when detected early was 2% in the illiterate women compared to 18.2 % in secondary graduates, 12% in primary, and 11% in university graduates. It is concluded that the majority of women do not perform self breast examination and only few have some knowledge about it when detected early breast cancer is curable.