Breast self-examination and clinical breast examination: Knowledge, practice, and awareness towards breast cancer among females in and around Mangaluru

Introduction: Among the Indian women, the second highest cause for cancer related vulnerability is due to breast cancer development. According to the literature survey, though there are several contributing factors underlying the development of Breast Cancer, One of the important causes is the lack of knowledge towards the identification. Materials & Method: The present study was to reveal the level of knowledge towards Self- breast examination and clinical breast examination, among 214 females belonging to the age group from 18 to 65 years, in around mangaluru, with different levels of literacy, economic status, social exposure and field of occupation using questionnaire. Study report shows that the extent of knowledge is around 36% and shows no relation to the extent of literacy levels. Results: The results of the study showed that 97% of the participants said that they had heard about breast cancer and their sources of information were mainly health professionals/workers (98.2%), friends/ neighbors (83.5%), TV/Radio (76.0%) and printed materials (60.2%). Of the participants, 12% reported positive family history of breast cancer. 35.68% said that they have heard about BSE, among these, 72.2% were regular performers with complete knowledge of BSE, 27.80% knew the procedure but were irregular in practice. Moreover, 85.5% does not know who has to do Clinical Breast Examination and 71.5% of the participants were unaware of mammogram. Conclusions: The study points to the insufficient knowledge of the study population about breast cancer and identified the negative influence of low knowledge of the practice of BSE.