فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and the leading causeof cancer death in females’ worldwide. Pakistan has higher incidence of the disease than theneighboring countries and one in every nine Pakistani women suffers from breast cancer which isone of the highest incidence rate in Asia. Numerous risk factors such as nulliparity, family history,genetic mutations, increasing age, early menarche, and late menopause are associated with thedevelopment of breast cancer. Lack of awareness and the preexisting myths regarding this diseasehave led to the detection of breast cancer at a later stage.OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this study is to determine the frequency of adequate breastcancer knowledge and its level among nonmedical women of Karachi coming to attend generalsurgery outpatient clinics.METHODS: A cross‑sectional Study was conducted in Outpatient Clinics, Department of GeneralSurgery, Civil Hospital, Karachi. The sample of 250 females with nonmedical background was gatheredfrom December 27, 2016 to June 26, 2017. Adequate breast cancer knowledge was divided intothree criteria such as poor, fair, and good knowledge. Chi‑square test was applied. P ≤ 0.05 wasconsidered as statistically significant.RESULTS: The mean age was 35.63 ± 9.56 years. Mean knowledge score was 5.24 ± 2.92.Overall, 42% of participants were found with adequate breast cancer knowledge whereas 58% of theparticipants had inadequate knowledge. Based on the study questionnaire, 38% had poor knowledge,40.4% had fair knowledge, and 21.6% had good knowledge. Significant association was observedwith age, monthly family income, education status, and occupation.CONCLUSION: The results showed lack of adequate knowledge. A high proportion (58%) ofnonmedical females had inadequate knowledge about breast cancer.