Awareness about Breast Cancer and Its Screening among Rural Egyptian Women, Minia District: a Population-Based Study

BACKGROUND: Recent global cancer statistics indicate rising global incidence of breast cancer and the increase is occurring at a faster rate in developing countries. Training women how to carry out breast self-examination (BSE) can help them to be alert to any abnormalities in their breasts to speedily seek medical consultation. Health behavior may be influenced by level of awareness about breast cancer. METHODS: A cross-sectional community- based study aimed to assess the level of knowledge about breast cancer risk factors, early warning signs, screening approaches and related predictors. Also, to determine the extent of practice of breast self- examination (BSE) among rural women, Minia in the period from February to May 2016. A total of 600 women were randomly included in the study. A questionnaire included socio-demographic characteristics and information related to their knowledge about breast cancer. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS version 19. RESULTS: Moderate and high knowledge scores were presented by 46.9 %. Nearly 40% of participants had the knowledge that smoking increased the likelihood of cancer breast and almost 30% of them affirmed that being obese or having a positive family history of cancer breast made them vulnerable to cancer breast. It was found that 28.7% and 18.2% of them knew that aging and nulliparity increased the likelihood of breast cancer. Participants with better knowledge score were 4.8 times more likely to practice BSE. CONCLUSION: This study revealed poor knowledge among rural women regarding cancer breast. BSE and clinical breast examination were not well practiced. It is recommended to create awareness programs about breast cancer and regular patterns of BSE.