Knowledge Attitude and Breast Self-Examination Among Participating in the Community-Based Academic Service Project Conducted in a Shopping Mall

Abstract

Knowledge and attitudes are important determinants of behavioral. This descriptive study aimed to investigate the relationship between knowledge about breast cancer, attitudes towards breast examination, and breast cancer self-examination among participants in an academic service project at a shopping mall in Chiang Rai Province. The sample consisted of 111 female participants selected using simple random sampling. The instruments consisted of researcher-developed questionnaires including personal information questionnaire, knowledge about breast cancer questionnaire, attitudes towards breast examination questionnaire, and breast cancer self-examination questionnaire. The breast cancer knowledge questionnaire and the attitude toward breast examination questionnaire demonstrated acceptable internal consistency reliability, with a KR-20 coefficient of 0.70 and a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.86, respectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Spearman correlation coefficient.

The results showed that the sample had a low level of knowledge about breast cancer, a high level of attitudes towards breast examination, and 38.7% performed breast cancer self-examination. Knowledge about breast cancer had a statistically significant positive correlation at low level with breast cancer self-examination (r = 0.21, p < 0.05), and attitudes towards breast cancer examination had a statistically significant positive correlation at moderate level with breast cancer self-examination (r = 0.33, p < 0.001). The results of this study could be used as basic information to plan for promoting knowledge about breast cancer and breast cancer self-examination.