KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE OF BREAST SELF-EXAMINATION AMONG UNDERGRADUATE MIDWIFERY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES, GHANA

Abstract

Background: Against the background of the worldwide harm caused by breast cancer, as well as the benefits of early detection through simple techniques such as breast self-examination, this study investigated the knowledge and practice of breast self-examination among, midwifery undergraduate students of the University for Development Studies, Tamale-Ghana. Methods: The study is an institutional-based descriptive cross-sectional survey conducted among second-year female students at the Midwifery Department of the University for Development Studies. The data was collected through a pre-tested structured paper based-questionnaire. The data were analyzed descriptively and presented in frequencies, percentages, tables and figure. Results: The study recruited 100 participants with an age range between 20 and 39 years with the majority within 20-24 years. The overall knowledge score was 73.0%, a majority of the participants indicated practising breast self-examination (81.0%), but with a low practice score of (49.0%). The study found significant associations between practices of breast self-examination, age (p= 0.022) and marital status (p=0.001) of study participants. Conclusion: The study found high knowledge of breast self-examination with the majority of study participants saying that they practise breast self-examination. However, the overall practices score of breast-self-examination was relatively low. Additional efforts by the directorate of health services at universities including our study setting are needed to increase knowledge and practices of breast self-examination among students, irrespective of their programme of study.