Knowledge, attitude, and practice of malaysian medical students towards breast cancer: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objectives: Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in the world. The purpose of this study is to assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of breast self-examination (BSE) and breast cancer among female International Medical School (IMS) students in Management and Science University. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at IMS from April 2014 to September 2014. About 260 female students were selected randomly by a probability sampling method. A pre-tested, a self-administered validated questionnaire was used to gather data, which was analyzed using SPSS software. Chi-square test was used for analysis for categorical variables. p<0.05 were considered significant. Results: About 75% of the respondents (N=195) had overall knowledge and 89.6% (N=233) had an overall attitude towards BSE and breast cancer. About 167 respondents (64.2%) had poor BSE practice. There was no significance between the respondents’ level of knowledge and practice of BSE (p=0.606). However, the association of respondents’ level of attitude and practice of BSE was found statistically significant (p=0.002). Conclusion: The results indicate that the respondents had good overall knowledge and positive attitude. However, most respondents did not practice BSE. Therefore, there is certainly an immense requirement for a community health education and teaching-learning program that will inculcate the practice of BSE among young university students so that breast cancer can be reduced in Malaysia.