Knowledge, attitudes and practices about breast self-examination of private university students in the health area. Cartagena (Colombia)

Conocimientos, actitudes y prácticas sobre autoexamen de mamas en universitarias del área de la salud. Cartagena (Colombia)

Objective: to determine the knowledge, attitudes and practices on breast self-examination of university students in the health area at private university in Cartagena (Colombia). Materials and methods: a cross-sectional study with a reference population of 513 university students, sample size of 165 women from 20 to 49 years of age. A survey was applied, which included demographic variables, knowledge, attitudes and practices about breast self-examination. Results: Results: Of the women surveyed, the 36.4% (60) belong to the socio-economic stratum 2, 81.2% revealed not to be mother of a family, 50.3% belong to the contributory regime. It was found that 80.6% (133) of the population surveyed know how to perform breast self-examination, more than half said that this practice should be made from the 20 years (64.2%) (106) and 67% (110) are in accordance with the advantages of this technique. The 78.7% of the student participants considered this practice suitable for detection of alterations in the breast or other findings suggestive of breast cancer. With regard to attitudes, for 95.8% (158) of the young people is well done, although a significant percentage of these women never performed ((30.9%) (51)). Conclusions: most of the students have good knowledge about breast self-examination, recognize the importance of performing it, present a favorable attitude, and have a good practice.