Knowledge and Attitude towards Breast Cancer among Medical Undergraduate Students

Aim: To find out the knowledge and attitude of medical undergraduate students towards breast cancer.

Study Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Study was performed in Ziauddin medical university during the period of October to December 2020.

Methodology: All the undergraduate Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) female students were included in the study irrespective of year of study. A self-designed, self-explanatory questionnaire was made and validated by doing a pilot study. Data was analyzed by using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version-20).

Results: Mean age of the study participants was 22.2 ± 1.7 years. Data regarding knowledge about the risk factors reported that overall more than 62% of the students were aware of the risk factors leading to breast cancer. Looking over the individual risk factors, about 77.3% recognized increased age as a major contributing factor, followed by lack of breast feeding, nulliparity, obesity, use of contraceptive pills, late menopause, early menarche and smoking with 68.3%,54.9%,51.1%, 64.8%,61.6%,39,2% and 48.6%respectively. Focusing specifically the year of MBBS student, the level of medical education increases the awareness about the risk factor also increase. Looking over the attitude of undergraduate MBBS students, about 76.8% of the students consulted to the doctor for breast lump, out of them 41.6% immediately consulted, 27.3% delayed it for weeks and 7.9% waited for months for self-recovery.

Conclusion: It can be concluded that majority of undergraduate medical students were having enough knowledge about the breast cancer, associated risk factors, symptoms and diagnostic modalities along with having positive attitude towards seeking medical help.