Breast Self Examination Awareness And Practices Among Lady Health Workers

Abstract

Objective: To find out the awareness and practices regading breast self examination (BSE)
among the lady health workers of Tehsil Arifwala, Dist. Pakistan, Punjab.
Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted to find out the awareness and practices of
Breast self examination among the lady health workers of Tehsil Arifwala, district Pakpatan,
Punjab. 300LHW's fulfilling the inclusion criteria were selected through consecutive sampling
technique. Information was collected regarding awareness and practices of BSE through
interview on questionnaire covering all variables. The BSE practices of LHW's were determined
on two criteria:
1. No. of BSE steps performed (categorized as 'average' for performing >2 steps and 'below
average' for performing one or two steps.
2. Interval of BSE (categorized as 'correct' for regular monthly interval and 'incorrect' for >1 month
interval.
Data was entered and cleaned using Epi data 3.1 and analyzed using Epi info 3.5.1
Results: Mean age of participants was 32.06 ± 7.8 years. Majority were married (79%), rural
dwellers (64.3%), had job experience upto 5 years (55.3%) and were educated above middle
(53.7%).Majority 280 (93.3% )were aware of breast self examination but only 80 (28.5%) were
practicing it. Out of 80 who were performing BSE, 34 (12.1%) were practicing BSE at correct
interval and only 46 (16.4%) were practicing average steps. Significant relationship was found
between the age and awareness while higher levels of job experience had a significant
relationship with BSE practice.
Conclusion: The awareness level of LHW's regarding BSE was relatively high as compared to
their practices of BSE. As the LHW has a direct link with the community, there is a need to organize
training courses for LHW's regarding correct BSE practices. Special emphasis should be paid to
timeliness and steps of the procedure so she can provide proper information to community for
early detection of breast cancer