BREAST CANCER AWARENESS IN RURAL AREAS OF PAKISTAN

Background: Breast cancer is still most commonly occurring of all cancers in the females with an incidence of 1.8 million and 8 million deaths reported in 2013. [31] Unfortunately more than 90,000 patients are being diagnosed annually in Pakistan mostly in the terminal stage. [32] The only way forward for its early detection depends on the women education regarding etiology, risk factors and prognosis associated with early screening.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in DHQ Teaching Hospital Sargodha during January 2019 to June 2019 using stratified random sampling. A total of 104 female patients were enrolled using a self-structured questionnaire. Knowledge of breast cancer risk factors was categorized into good, fair and poor categories.

Results: Only 7 percent of patients possessed good knowledge about the risk factors. This included the ones who were involved in the cancer care of their friends/family members, underwent breast self-exam or attended a surgical/gynaecological OPD for breast tenderness/antenatal visits.

Conclusion: Our study highlighted the fact that there is an evident lack of knowledge prevailing in the rural segments of our society about the risk factors associated with the breast cancer. Only 7 percent females from the rural areas of Pakistan possessed adequate knowledge. Early identification of the danger signs and initiation of timely interventions can reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with the breast cancer. Therefore, it is recommended that extensive public awareness campaigns should be encouraged to outreach the females of rural population especially and educate them regarding self-breast examination, benefits of early screening and diagnosis.