Assessment of Awareness about Breast Cancer among Women Residing in Urban Poor Sector of Belagavi - A Cross Sectional Study

Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer in the world, India accounting for largest estimated deaths. Women present with advanced stages at which little benefit is derived from therapy resulting in poor survival. Women from poor sectors are at more risk because of inadequate knowledge and health care approach. Increasing their awareness can help in early detection and alter their treatment seeking attitude thus improving the survival rates. In order to assess the same, a Cross Sectional Study was conducted in 2015 among 393 poor urban women between the ages of 18-45 years, residing in Khasbag, Belagavi. Awareness of breast cancer, risk factors showed that 11.2% had poor knowledge, 57.5% had fair knowledge and 31.3% had good knowledge. With respect to signs and symptoms of breast cancer 71% had good knowledge, 27.7% had fair knowledge while only 1.3% had poor knowledge. Majority of the women had good overall knowledge (60.1%) and attitude (91.6%) levels. Most of them (97.2%) showed positive attitude towards seeking treatment. Association between knowledge and attitude was statistically significant (pless than0.05); the women with fair (32.8%) to good (58.8%) knowledge had good attitude.