The prevalence of palpable breast lumps among young women attending Makerere University and their awareness of breast self examination
Abstract
Description
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Medicine in Surgery of Makerere University.
Introduction: The commonest presenting symptom among women attending the breast clinic in Mulago Hospital is a lump. Whereas breast lumps form the biggest burden of disease in Mulago hospital breast clinic and breast lump prevalence has been studied there, no community prevalence studies have been done in the sub-served areas. The majority of patients presenting with breast lumps in Mulago Hospital find them coincidentally and yet they are potentially malignant. Although breast self-examination is currently recommended as a screening strategy in resource limited settings, there is no documented evidence of breast self-examination awareness among young women in Uganda. Objective: To determine the prevalence of palpable breast lumps in young women in the community and their awareness of breast self examination. Methods: Three hundred and fourteen female university students who participated in this cross sectional descriptive study were recruited by random sampling. Permission was sought from the Institutional Review Board (research and ethics committee) and informed consent secured from the participants. A pre tested questionnaire was used for data collection. Those with lumps were referred to the Mulago breast clinic. Analysis was done using STATA statistical package. Proportions where compared using Fisher’s Exact test. Results: The prevalence of palpable breast lumps was 4,780 per 100,000 and they were mostly located in the upper outer quadrant of the breast. Of the fifteen participants who were found to have lumps five were not aware of their presence. Even though 255(81%) of the 314 students had heard about breast self-examination only 110(43%) of them knew it to be a screening tool. Of all the 314 subjects interviewed, only 96(30%) had performed a breast self-examination before. Of those who had performed breast self-examination before, 45(14 %) did it regularly and 20(8 %) knew the correct monthly timing. 3(1%) described the steps of a breast self-examination fully and correctly. Conclusion: The prevalence of breast lumps in young women attending Makerere University is comparable to other community prevalence studies in this age group. The awareness of breast self-examination in the university community is poor as exemplified by a low breast self-examination performance rate and failure to perform the technique correctly.
Introduction: The commonest presenting symptom among women attending the breast clinic in Mulago Hospital is a lump. Whereas breast lumps form the biggest burden of disease in Mulago hospital breast clinic and breast lump prevalence has been studied there, no community prevalence studies have been done in the sub-served areas. The majority of patients presenting with breast lumps in Mulago Hospital find them coincidentally and yet they are potentially malignant. Although breast self-examination is currently recommended as a screening strategy in resource limited settings, there is no documented evidence of breast self-examination awareness among young women in Uganda. Objective: To determine the prevalence of palpable breast lumps in young women in the community and their awareness of breast self examination. Methods: Three hundred and fourteen female university students who participated in this cross sectional descriptive study were recruited by random sampling. Permission was sought from the Institutional Review Board (research and ethics committee) and informed consent secured from the participants. A pre tested questionnaire was used for data collection. Those with lumps were referred to the Mulago breast clinic. Analysis was done using STATA statistical package. Proportions where compared using Fisher’s Exact test. Results: The prevalence of palpable breast lumps was 4,780 per 100,000 and they were mostly located in the upper outer quadrant of the breast. Of the fifteen participants who were found to have lumps five were not aware of their presence. Even though 255(81%) of the 314 students had heard about breast self-examination only 110(43%) of them knew it to be a screening tool. Of all the 314 subjects interviewed, only 96(30%) had performed a breast self-examination before. Of those who had performed breast self-examination before, 45(14 %) did it regularly and 20(8 %) knew the correct monthly timing. 3(1%) described the steps of a breast self-examination fully and correctly. Conclusion: The prevalence of breast lumps in young women attending Makerere University is comparable to other community prevalence studies in this age group. The awareness of breast self-examination in the university community is poor as exemplified by a low breast self-examination performance rate and failure to perform the technique correctly.
Keywords
Breast cancer, Breast lumps