Published Paper Details:

Breast Cancer is the most common cancer in women, worldwide. Bangladesh has one of the highest incidences of breast cancer in Asia. The present study has conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices towards breast cancer early detection methods among female of reproductive ages in the urban and rural areas of 2 districts in Bangladesh. From the study area, Dhaka Medical College Hospital and Rajshahi Medical College Hospital. Two types of participants were selected, one types of participants were from urban areas and other types of participants were from rural areas. Total 357 women were selected from outpatient units of the selected hospitals. In this study participants were women with the inclusion criteria of 15-49 years age range. From the result it was found that both rural and urban women had poor knowledge of breast cancer though the majority of the participants have heard about breast cancer but very few percentages of urban and rural educated women of them have a thorough understanding of the disease. Knowledge of breast cancer risk factors is little bit satisfactory in case of urban women but inadequate among a large percentage of rural women. Breast cancer awareness programs on the symptoms, screening, and prevention should be initiated especially at the community level. Additionally, health education might play a significant role in promoting good practices among young women especially personal hygiene, self-examination of breasts, and other screening programs for ensuring early detection and starting of the treatment. The study revealed that the efforts should be made by Government and Non-Governmental agencies to improve breast cancer knowledge among the mass reproductive aged women in Bangladesh. Programmes to educate religious leaders and alternative medical practitioners about breast cancer should be encouraged. The advantage of early presentation and treatment of patients suffering from breast cancer should be emphasized during such interactions.