AWARENESS OF THE FEMALE STUDENTS, HEALTH CARE PERSONNEL AND PATIENTS TO SELF BREAST EXAM

The most common site of cancer in women is breast, and breast cancer is the second cause of death in women fortunately, breast self exam (BSE) is a simple, noninvasive rout to early diagnosis of this fatal disease. So, in order to assess the knowledge level of the mentioned groups about (BSE) we conducted a descriptive, cross-sectional study and 428 subjects within which 208 patients, 155 students and the rest, health care personnels participated in our research. Findings revealed that the level of awareness of 52.3% of the participants was low and it was good in 17.1%, whereas we put the rest in a border line domain. We also found that level of awareness was higher in midwifery students (P<0.001). Overall, we can reckon that the level of awareness to BSE is low and considering that it should be high in those who work in health providing areas, appropriate teaching programs is to be provided.