A Study to Evaluate the Knowledge Concerning Breast Carcinoma among Women Visiting Tertiary Care Hospital in Western India
Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Background: The diagnosed breast cancer cases in the year 2020 were 2.3 million and deaths due to breast cancer were 685,000 globally. It is the world’s most widespread cancer. The prevalence of breast cancer is rising globally. In many countries like India, early age of onset and late stage of detection results in poor prognosis. The Global Breast Cancer Initiative of WHO seeks to lower the annual death rate from breast cancer by 2.5%. Early diagnosis is essential and for that assessment of knowledge and areas of lack of knowledge is of utmost importance. Objective: The objective of this study is to gauge the extent of knowledge concerning breast cancer, its curability, and risk factors in female patients visiting various outpatient departments (OPDs) in a tertiary care hospital. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study which was carried out by giving a structured questionnaire to 200 women attending various OPDs of the medical college, content validity is established by experts in oncology. Findings were analyzed using a Microsoft Excel sheet. A score of 1 is allocated to the right answer while 0 is to the wrong one. All collected data were entered in Microsoft Excel and analyzed by SPSS 27. We calculated numbers and percentages for the qualitative data. The knowledge was considered good when the total score of all three domains of knowledge was >60% and poor when <60%. We used the Chi-square test to find the association with age, marital status, occupation, and level of education. P <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The study findings are 38.2% of 20–35 years age group women have good knowledge while housewives (34.7%) have better knowledge than unskilled workers (15.4%). This study analyzed the percentage of women who gave poor and good responses according to their age groups. Women with diploma holders (40.0%) and graduation degree holders (36.1%) have shown average knowledge regarding breast cancer. Those women who completed the education up to high school (11.4%), middle school (0%), and primary school (0%) have shown good knowledge regarding breast cancer. Thus, women should be strengthened by inculcating the knowledge regarding the influence of hormones on the occurrence of breast cancer. Conclusion: Overall, female patients visiting tertiary care hospitals have poor knowledge concerning breast cancer, its curability, and risk factors. Patients belonging to low socioeconomic status strata and unskilled workers have poor knowledge regarding breast cancer, its curability, and risk factors. Mass campaigning is essential to improve knowledge through different media.
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4409120413