A Study of Socio-Cultural Factors Pertaining to Breast Self-Examination Knowledge, Attitude and Performance of Female Students of Shiraz University

Breast cancer is one of the diseases which may have destructive effects on women’s social lives. As its treatment in early stages may yield favorable results, it is imperative that women acquire adequate knowledge and attitude and perform suitably in this regard. Therefore, the present study aimed at examining the socio-cultural factors pertaining to the knowledge, attitude and performance of the female students of Shiraz University as regards breast self-examination. This cross-sectional survey involved 305 female students of Shiraz University selected through simple random selection of respondents drawn by quota sampling method. A use was made of a questionnaire to elicit data and SPSS software to analyze it. As it was revealed by the analysis, 43.1% of the respondents had a limited knowledge of breast self-examination and 34.32 % expressed a negative attitude towards it. Further, only 2.3 % of the respondents practiced breast self-examination regularly. Accordingly, it is essential that attempts be made to train women and to enhance their knowledge.