Knowledge and Practice of Screening for Breast Cancer among Women in Uyo Akwa Ibom State Nigeria

The purpose of the study was to investigate the knowledge and practice of screening tests for breast cancer among women in Uyo. Three specific objectives and corresponding research questions with two hypotheses were used in the study. A descriptive cross-sectional design was adopted for the study. A multistage sampling technique was used to select 420 women aged 18 to 50 years from a population of 5, 860. The data collected were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. Many of the women (66.7 %) knew about Breast Self Examination (BSE), few of them (24.5 % and 24 %) knew Clinical Breast Examination (CBE) and Mammogram respectively. There was a significant association between knowledge of eligible women to be screened and practice of breast cancer screening with 2 value 17.62 and P value 0.00527 while no significant association existed between knowledge of body part, screening center, signs looked for and practice of breast cancer screening (x2 = 4.93, 10.23, 6.83; P = 0.176995, 0.805028, 0.077625). The practice of breast screening was related to age and level of education with r = 0.590 and 0.464, P value = 0.00001 and 0.00001 which was significant to reject hypothesis two. Adequate health education through women friendly organizations and screening for all women during regular physician office visit for other health issues were recommended.