Breast self-examination knowledge and practice among Kuwaiti women

Abstract EN

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common type of cancer among women living in both developed and developing countries and one of the most common causes of death among women in developing countries.

Most cases of BC are diagnosed at late stages of the disease due to insufficient knowledge about breast self- examination (BSE) and clinical breast examination (CBE).

The study objective is to report Kuwaiti women's practice, knowledge, and etiological reasons that discourage women from performing BSEs.

A questionnaire was distributed among 716 women of ages between 15 and 62 years old with two scales, (1) Knowledge of BSE performance and (2) Reasons for not practicing BSE, as well as socio-demographic questions.

The findings show that Kuwaiti women s reasons for not practicing BSE were related to the fact that the majority (78.1%) did not know about the frequency of performing BSE.

nor how to perform it.

The participants (70.7%) also claimed that they did not know the right time to perform BSE.

There was a significant relationship between the participants' ethnic roots.

BC frequency among them, family history of BC.

and family history of cancer and the participants' knowledge about performing BSE (P < 0.05).

Also, there was a significant relationship between participants' BSE awareness and age, educational level, marital status, and family history of BC (P < 0.01).