DOI: 10.21276/sajp.2017.6.2

Pages: 4-15

Breast cancer is a principal cause of cancer related deaths in women worldwide including Nigeria. Excellent knowledge and awareness of breast cancer will help to reduce the number of women who present at late stages of the disease when little or no benefit can be obtained from any form of treatment. This study assessed knowledge and awareness of breast cancer among university students in south-south, Nigeria. This cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted from September 2014 to December 2014 among a convenience sample of 774 male and female students at two purposively selected universities in south-south Nigeria. A structured and pretested questionnaire with a reliability of 0.72 Cronbach’s alpha which was self-administered was used for data collection. Data analysis was done using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Level of significance was set 95%. 800 questionnaires were administered and 774 were completed and returned giving a response rate of 97%. There were a higher percentage of females (62.3%) than males (37.7%). All respondents (100%) had heard of breast cancer with radio (52.9%) and television (47.3%) respectively as the major sources of information. Level of knowledge and awareness of risk factors for respondents from Delta State University and University of Port Harcourt was poor (51.2%, 49.8%) respectively. For both universities, respondents had excellent knowledge and awareness of breast cancer symptoms (75.5%, 72.7% respectively); breast cancer prevention and treatment (89.2%, 87.8%) respectively; and breast cancer detection methods (94.0%, 93.5%) respectively