Woman’s Knowledge about Breast Cancer in Al-Ramadi City, Iraq

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common leading cause of cancer death in females after lung cancer. This study aims to assess the women's knowledge about breast cancer in Al-Ramadi City, Iraq.A cross-sectional study was carried out in Al-Ramadi City at the Teaching Hospital of Maternity and Childhood in Al-Anbar Governorate during January 2020. A semi-structured questionnaire was designed to interview women with closed-ended questions related to knowledge of women about breast cancer. Statistical analysis was carried out by SPSS Version 16.The mean age of study sample was 34 (±11.9) years and 61.2% of them in age range of 20-39 years. Most of the respondents were housewives (72.0%), married (68.4%) and low educated (58.8%). More than half of the participants (51.2%) showed an overall acceptable level of knowledge (66.67%) on the various aspects of breast cancer-related risk factors. There was a significant association between marital status and knowledge of women (P=0.008). The main source of information was friends and family among 75.6% of respondents compared to 25.2% who had received knowledge of breast cancer from healthcare providers.Despite the acceptable level of knowledge, the study revealed a significant deficiency in health awareness campaigns about the breast cancer.