Knowledge and Practice of Breast Self-Examination Among Female Nursing Students in University of Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria

Breast cancer appears to be a disease of both developing and developed nations; it is the leading cause of death universally and responsible for about 12% of death throughout the world. The risk of breast cancer increases with age. The primary factor that increases breast cancer in women includes certain genetic mutations, personal family history of breast cancer and biopsy confirming hyperplasia. The purpose of breast self-examination is to learn the topography of the breast which will allow one to notice changes in the breast such as breast lumps or masses. Breast self-examination is done monthly between the 7th and 10th day of menstrual cycle which is early identification of abnormality and is also a low risk procedure that do not cause pain or discomfort. The aim of the study is to evaluate the knowledge and practice of female students in relation to breast self-examination. A non-experimental descriptive study was used to examined the knowledge and practice of breast self-examination among female nursing students of the department of nursing science, university of Maiduguri. A self-structured questionnaire with a content validity and reliability of 0.82 and 0.78 respectively. Using Yemen’s formula, sample size of one hundred and nine (109) respondents were selected from 100 level to 500 level nursing students using simple random sampling technique after the use of stratified random sampling which ensured that each strata (class level) was represented in the study. All data were analyzed using frequency and percentages and presented in tables. Chi-square statistic with 0.05 level of significant was used in testing the developed hypothesis. The findings shows that the majority of the students have knowledge on breast self-examination and they also practice breast self-examination. All hypotheses tested showed that there is significant relationship between knowledge, source of information, age and practice of breast self-examination as all the calculated values were greater than the critical value (table value). The researchers recommend that effort should be sustained in ensuring nursing students continue to update their knowledge and skills of breast self-examination and also educate their colleagues who have poor knowledge of BSE with the view to improving their practice.