In the Philippines, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among women, hence, the public health sector advocated the secondary preventive measures, such as breast self-examination (BSE). This study aimed to assess healthcare workers' knowledge, attitude and practices of BSE and the impact of an awareness progam to these domains.
All female healthcare workers at least 18 years old who were not pregnant were eligible to the study. The respondents were randomly assigned either group A (control: brochure) or group B (interventional: awareness program and brochure). A validated questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge and attitude towards breast self-examination (BSE), while practice was based on the scoring of the principal investigator as the respondents perform BSE. After six weeks, all the domains were reassessed, and the scores were compared.
The baseline characteristics between study groups were similar in almost all aspects. At baseline both study groups showed good knowledge, moderately good attitude and poor practice of BSE. After intervention, there was no significant difference in the knowledge, but there was a significant improvement in the attitude of the respondents who had encountered the awareness program. Both interventions significantly improved the practice scores, however, there was no significant difference between the study groups.
The respondents in this study were well-educated, hence the baseline knowledge scores were good. Similar to other studies, respondents with good knowledge also had good attitude towards BSE. However, practice was poor, thus it does not translate that respondents with good knowledge and attitude, will have good practice of BSE. The awareness program greatly made an impact on the attitude, compared to giving out brochures alone. Although, both interventions significantly improved the practice on BSE, the respondents with the awareness program had more improved respondents. Hence, the study showed that a well-planned awareness program will greatly improve the knowledge, attitude and practices of BSE of healthcare workers, but the superiority of the intervention is inconclusive.
The investigator would like to express her gratitude to her mentors: Dr. Felycette Gay Lapus, Dr. Alisa Bernan and Dr. Jessie Orcasitas.
Department of Health XI Cluster Ethics Review Committee.
Has not received any funding.
The author has declared no conflicts of interest.