Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Women Towards Breast Cancer in Benin City, Nigeria

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the principal cause of cancer deaths among women worldwide. African women in comparison with their low incidence of cancer, disproportionately bear a high cancer mortality rate. AIM: The study was aimed at investigating level of breast cancer awareness, attitudes and practices towards early detection strategies. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The study was conducted in Oredo municipal council of Benin city and adopted a descriptive cross sectional design. Purposive, stratified and simple random sampling were used to select 365 women from 9 health facilities in 6 wards of the municipality. Self-administered questionnaires were used. Analysis was done using Social Science Statistical Package, version 16 (United States, 2007) (country of make and if). Test of associations employed chi square statistical tool with level of significance generally taken at 0.05. RESULTS: About 90.5% (314/347) knew about breast cancer, but only about 49.71% (172/347) knew up to 3 breast cancer risk factors. A total of 65.2% (226/347) could identify up to two breast cancer signs and symptoms. While about 56.5% (195/347) knew at least one early detection strategy, it was however only about 17.73% (61/347) that practiced regularly at least one of the early detective procedures. Practice of early detection strategies was significantly associated with knowledge (P = 0.01 respectively). CONCLUSION: The result shows that while substantial number still remains ignorant of breast cancer issues, a good number of those who have knowledge were yet to translate knowledge and attitudes into practice.