Breast self-examination and associated factors among women in Wolaita sodo city, Ethiopia: Community based cross sectional study
Abstract Background: Early detection of breast cancer plays an important role in decreasing morbidity and mortality associated with breast cancer. Breast self-examination (BSE) is one of the screening methods for early detection of breast cancer. BSE method involves the woman herself looking at and feeling each breast for possible lumps, distortions or swelling. BSE is a simple exercise which can potentially save the life of a woman but it is not well focused yet and no study has addressed BSE at community level. So, this was aimed assess breast Self-Examination and associated factors among women in Wolaita Sodo city, Ethiopia.Methods: Community based cross-sectional study design was employed. Systemic random sampling technique was used to select 626 women aged 20-65 years old. The data were collected using pre-tested and structured questionnaire. The data entry was done using Epi data version 3.5.1 and exported to SPSS version 21 software for cleaning and statistical analysis. Bivariable analysis was done and variables with p-value of less than 0.25 were made candidate for multiple logistic regression analysis. The relative contribution of each selected variables to the outcome of interest was assessed using multiple logistic regression and variables with P-value less than 0.05 were considered as statically significant.Results: A total of 629 women between 20 and 65 years old were included in the study. More than half (60.9%) of the participants were in the age range of 20-29 years and 8.2% were less than 50 years old. Two hundred eighteen (34.7%) and 338(53.7%) had primary and secondary/ college/university education, respectively. Women who had mentioned BSE as method for early detection of breast problem were 6.359 times (AOR: 6.359, 95% CI :( 3.719, 10.713) more likely to perform BSE than those who say that they don’t know any method. Conclusion The finding of this study showed that women’s practice of breast self-examination is relatively low. Knowledge of BSE, breast feeding up to 24 months, being employed and being student were factors affecting performing breast self-examination. Therefore, educating girls and increasing awareness on electronics media is important.