DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2023.v11i11.016

Pages: 1953-1957

Introduction: Breast Cancer (BC) continues on being a significant reason for morbidity and mortality all through the world. Early location and treatment of BC builds the possibilities of survival. As per Breast Health Global Initiative guidelines for low and middle income nations, diagnosing BC right on time by promoting breast self-awareness, clinical breast examination (CBE) and asset adapted mammographic screening will diminish BC mortality. Aim of the Study: The aim of this study was to find out the prevalence of breast self-examination in order to protect themselves from breast cancer among Bangladeshi females attending OPD in a tertiary level hospital. Methods: The present study is a tertiary hospital based cross sectional study and was conducted in Dhaka city, the capital of Bangladesh. Women of reproductive age group (25- 45 years) were interviewed after taking their consent. A total of 179 women were interviewed using a pre-structured questionnaire. Result: In current study, majority of women were in the age group of 31-35 years (34.64%) Out of total 61 illiterate (34.08%), member of joint families (68.71%) and married (73.74%) females were included. 53.4% women had heard about BC, 28.7% women had heard about BSE and 8.5% women had ever practiced BSE. Conclusion: Among the women interviewed, the overall knowledge, awareness and practices were found poor. There is a need for imparting awareness regarding the preventability and early detection of breast cancer through breast self-examination and thus indirectly decreasing the morbidity and mortality.