Sunita Sreegiri1 , Phani Madhavi Kajana2 , Devi Madhavi Bhimarasetty3
BACKGROUND Breast cancer ranks as the number one cancer among Indian females. According to estimates, at least 17,97,900 women in India may have breast cancer by 2020. As the incidence of breast cancer is rising, there is a current need to educate the women on preventive measures of breast cancer. METHODS A descriptive, cross sectional study was carried out to compare the awareness on breast cancer and its screening among women residing in rural and urban field practice areas of Department of Community Medicine, Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, during the month of October 2018. Hundred women each from rural and urban areas (making a total of 200), aged 20-70 yrs. were selected by simple random sampling & were interviewed using a standard questionnaire after taking informed consent. Data entry was done in MS excel and analysed in SPSS software. Chi square test was used to find the association between awareness of breast cancer with different socio-demographic characteristics. RESULTS About 26% of rural and 76% of urban women were aware of breast cancer. 15 rural and 34 urban women had knowledge regarding clinical breast examination. Regarding mammography, 54 urban women in comparison to 16 rural women were aware. Significant difference in awareness levels was observed between urban literate women and rural literate women. CONCLUSIONS Awareness levels about breast cancer and its screening methods was found to be less among women from both rural and urban areas. Educational interventions and screening programs in the community by health care providers would help in early detection and improve survival.
