Breast cancer knowledge among Bahraini women attending primary health care centers

Abstract EN

Objective : To evaluate breast cancer knowledge among Bahraini women aged 20 years and more attending primary health care centers.

Setting : Primary health care.

Design : Cross sectional descriptive study.

Method : Three hundred Bahraini women attending the primary health care clinics were interviewed from 1st February to 31st May 2005.

A multistage sample was selected with a cluster sampling technique for the selection of one health center from each region ; five health centers were selected.

The sample was stratified according to the percentage of females residing in each region.

A semi-structured questionnaire was used for interviewing the study participants.

Result : Seventeen (5.6 %) women knew more than half of the correct answers, and the mean “Percent Knowledge Index” was 32.1 % ± 12.7 %.

Newspapers, television, radio, were identified as the main source of knowledge of breast cancer.

Highly educated women were more knowledgeable about breast cancer (p = 0.002), diagnostic modalities (p = 0.008), and risk factors (p < 0.0001).

Women with positive family history of breast cancer knew more about treatment modalities than those without a history (p = 0.017).

Moreover, no significant differences were found between the general knowledge and its subtypes among women with positive or negative personal history of breast complaints.

Conclusion: Breast cancer knowledge was deficient among Bahraini women.

Efforts to improve women’s education should be encouraged.

Breast cancer should be included as a subject in the high school curricula, with emphasis on modifiable risk factors.

The maximum use of media should be encouraged in breast cancer campaigns.