Awareness and practice of breast cancer and breast-self examination among university students in Yemen.

BACKGROUND Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer among females in Yemen and world-wide, Yemeni women are still facing an increasing threat to it in recent years and optimal chances for survival from BC in women can be achieved by detecting it early by Breast self examination (BSE). OBJECTIVE To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of breast cancer and breast self examination among female university students in Al-Mukalla city-2009. METHODS a cross sectional descriptive study was carried out among 425 female university students in Al-Mukalla city by using self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS the study indicated that majority of participants had low level of knowledge of BC 58.6%. Only 1.4% had gained high level of knowledge. 95.3% of participants believed BC is a serious disease. It was found that despite 76.9% of participants heard about BSE, only 17.4% of them were performing it. 55.9% mentioned lack of knowledge about technique of BSE as a barrier for not practicing BSE. Mass media 81.6 % and 67.3% was the first source of information about BC and BSE mentioned by the participants respectively. CONCLUSION the majority of participants heard about BC, but their knowledge and understanding of the disease was very low. The most known method of BC detection was BSE, however the majority never practice it due to lack of knowledge about technique.