Knowledge,attitude and practices amongst the Pakistani females towards breast cancer screening programme

Objective: to assess the knowledge,attitude and practices amongst pakistani females towards breast screening programmes. methods: the descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from june 2013 to july2014 at mayo hospital,lahore,and comprised attendants and patients who visited out-patients department and/or were treated as inpatients. the questionnaire contained 25 open and close-ended questions regarding knowledge and attitude,along with 7 questions regarding practices. data was analysed using spss 17. results: there were 1184 women with a mean age of 32.7±8.6 years. the mean score was 12.7±4.9. positive family history of breast cancer was reported by 156(13.2%) women; 420(35.5%) believed advancing age was a risk factor; 1041(87.9%) never had breast self-examination; 1106(93.4%) never had a clinical breast examination; and 1171(98.9%) never had screening mammogram. conclusion: the knowledge and practices regarding breast cancer screening,breast self-examination and mammogram among women were not good. the knowledge about breast cancer risk factors was very poor and showed an alarming attitude towards practices. © 2015,pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.