Socio Demographic Characteristics Of The Study Participants
A total of 150 female students were responded to the distributed questionnaires, making a response rate of 91%. The participants ranged from ages of 20 to 27 years old. As it can be seen from the table, Majority of the respondents (53.3%) were protestants, 29.3% were orthodox, 16% were Muslim and there is 1.3% of waaqeffannaa religion followers (Table 1).
Table 1
socio demographic characteristics of female students of Ambo University Health sciences students, Oromia region, Western Ethiopia, 2019
Variables
|
Frequency
|
%
|
Age
|
20–25
|
113
|
75.3%
|
|
26–30
|
37
|
24.7%
|
Religion
|
Orthodox
|
44
|
29.3%
|
|
Muslim
|
24
|
16%
|
|
Protestant
|
80
|
53.3%
|
|
Other
|
2
|
1.3%
|
Ethnicity
|
Oromo
|
87
|
58%
|
|
Amhara
|
47
|
31.3%
|
|
Tigre
|
7
|
4.7%
|
|
Others
|
9
|
6%
|
Year of study
|
1st
|
63
|
42%
|
|
2nd
|
48
|
32%
|
|
3rd
|
39
|
26%
|
Department
|
Nurse
|
50
|
33.3%
|
|
Midwifery
|
26
|
17.3%
|
|
Public health
|
42
|
28%
|
|
Pharmacy
|
20
|
13.3%
|
|
Medical laboratory
|
12
|
8%
|
From the study participants, the majority of them (58%) were Oromo, 31% were Amhara, and there is only 6.7% of the study participants were Tigre.
Their educational status was at the same level that all study participants was 1st year health science students of different department. From the total participants, majority, 40% of them were from nursing department, 20% of the were from midwifery department, 16% of them were from pharmacy, and only 2.7% of the study participants were from medical laboratory departments
Knowledge About BSE
Majority, 93(62%) of the participants had good knowledge, and 57(38.8%) of the study participants had poor knowledge of breast self-examination (Fig. 1). From total participants, 112(74.7%) was heard about BSE and 38(25.3%) of the respondents have no any information about BSE. The main source of information of the breast self-examination was from class room teaching (64.5%).
Practice of study participants toward BSE
This study showed that only 67(44.7%) of the study participants ever practiced BSE, including 38 (56.7%) participants who performed BSE every month, 17(25.4%) participants who performed once in a week and 12 (17.9%) participants who performed once in a year (Fig. 2).
The study respondents who practice BSE, majority, 30 (44.8%) of the respondents uses circular technique during BSE, 19 (28.4%) of them use wedge technique, 11(16.4%) of them uses vertical technique, and 7 (10.4%) of the study respondents uses all the above technique.
The majority of the participants, 83(55.3%) who did not perform BSE, were further asked on their reasons for not performing BSE, and 21 (25.3%) said that they lack of knowledge, 19(22.9%) followed by negligence, and 18(21.7%) fear of detecting something abnormal 15(18 %) of them said carelessness, and10 (12%) of them said forgetfulness (Fig. 3).
Regarding the questions about their family history 35(23.4%) of the participants have family history (mother or sister) breast cancer and were 115(76.6%) did not had family history of breast cancer, from the participant who had family history of BC 15(42.9%) were responds know that at risk for developing breast cancer and 57.1% should not know that at risk for developing breast cancer.
Factors Associated With Practice Of Breast Self-examination
To see the effect of independent variables on dependent variable (practice of BSE), bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were carried out. The analysis was done by including sociodemographic characteristics, history of breast cancer, and knowledge of BSE.
A result obtained from bivariate and multivariate logistic regression showed that family history of breast cancer, and knowledge have a signifcant association with practice of BSE. Among study participants whose families had breast cancer, practice BSE 2.12 times more than study participants whose families didn’t have his tory of breast cancer (AOR = 2.12; 95% CI, 1.09–3.95, P = 0.044).
Those who had good knowledge toward BSE were 5.5 times more likely to practice BSE than those who had poor knowledge (AOR = 9.5; 95% CI, 5.5–18.8, P = 0.002) (Table 2).
Table 2
Factors associated with BSE practice among female undergraduate students of health science in Ambo University, College of Medicine and Health science, Ambo, Ethiopia, 2019
Variables
|
|
BSE practice
|
COR (95% CI)
|
P-value
|
AOR (95% CI)
|
P-value
|
Yes
N (%)
|
No
N (%)
|
Family history of breast cancer
|
Yes
|
27(77)
|
8(23)
|
3.32 (1.11–3.24)
1.00
|
0.039
|
2.12 (1.09–3.95)
1.00
|
0.044*
|
No
|
40(34.8)
|
75(65.2)
|
Personal history of breast cancer
|
Yes
|
7(46.7)
|
8(53.3)
|
4.52(5.09–15.7)
1.00
|
0.008
|
2.02(3.07–10.6)
1.00
|
0.004*
|
No
|
60(44.4)
|
75(55.6)
|
Ever heard of BSE
|
Yes
|
53(47.3)
|
59(52.7)
|
1.87(1.09–3.7)
1.00
|
0.049
|
1.01(1.01–3.04)
1.00
|
0.040*
|
No
|
14(36.8)
|
24(63.2)
|
Knowledge toward BSE
|
Poor
|
9(15.8)
|
48(84.2)
|
1.00
10.73(9.64–18.8)
|
0.003
|
1.00
9.5(7.09–18.8)
|
0.002*
|
Good
|
58(62.4)
|
35(37.6)
|
COR crudes odds ratio, AOR adjusted odds ratio |
*significantly associated |