Knowledge, Attitude and Preventive Practices of Women Towards Breast Cancer in Kakoro Sub-County, Pallisa District.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In Uganda breast cancer is the third commonest cancer after cervical cancer and Kaposis sarcoma. The incidence rate of breast cancer has doubled from 11:100,000 in 1961 to 22:100,000 in 1995. The survival rate is below 50% which means more than half of the breast cancer cases usually end up dying. OBJECTIVE: this study was carried out to assess the knowledge, attitudes and preventive practices of women towards breast cancer in Kakoro Sub County, Pallisa district. METHODOLOGY: A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted to investigate the knowledge, attitudes and preventive practices of women towards breast cancer in Kakoro sub county, Pallisa district. A total of 383 correspondents were interviewed. Descriptive univariate analyses were used in SPSS and frequency tables and graphs were generated. PRESENTATION OF RESULTS: information on socio demographic factors like age, level of education, religion, number of children and others were presented in a tabulated form showing frequencies and percentages. Women’s knowledge and attitudes was presented in both tabulated and graphical forms putting across the different frequencies for the different respective questions asked.The top four commonly mentioned preventive practices of the women were presented in a graph. DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS: knowledge about breast cancer was very low, and consequently knowledge about the risk factors causes and preventive practices were also wanting. Most of the women didn’t know about BSE and they weren’t confident in its benefits but indicated that they trusted the health workers. They had a very negative attitude towards breast cancer and believed that it wasn’t curable. Most of them did nothing to prevent breast cancer and there was a general notion that nothing could be done to prevent breast cancer since they believed that it was caused by an organism. CONCLUSION: a lot of awareness is needed to correct many of the misinformation the women in Kakoro Sub County. Frequent screening programes were also urgently needed.