Tejaswi Vittal Pujar, Gayathri Linganagouda, Seema Benakanakondi, Linganagouda Patil, Sathyanand A, Hamsa, Dhruva, Gautam
INTRODUCTION: Breast cancer appears to be a disease of both developing and developed country. Breast cancer is now the most common cancer in most cities in India, and 2nd most common in the rural areas. OBJECTIVES: 1. To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of self breast examination among health care professionals. 2. To assess breast cancer awareness among health care professionals. METHODOLOGY: A questionnaire based cross sectional study in which 133 women belonging to various medical and allied specialties were included. RESULTS: It was found that most (91%) respondents were aware of BSE. The electronic media were the major sources of information followed by information from co-health workers. The attitude of health professionals on BSE was positive, with a fairly high degree of acceptability of the idea. Despite the positive attitude to BSE, its practice was low (73.7%). CONCLUSION: BSE is a cost effective screening modality. In view of worldwide rising trends in the incidence of breast cancer rates, importance of BSE should be popularised through mass media
