Abstract:
Introduction and background: Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer related
deaths among women worldwide. Diagnosis of breast cancer at an earlier stage allows
women more treatment choices and greater chance of long term survival. Breast selfexamination
(BSE) once a month contributes to a woman‟s heightened awareness of what
is normal for her. It is recommended that women over the age of 20 years perform
monthly breast self-examination to detect new lumps and other changes in their breast. In
view of the fact that mammography is not readily available in resource limited countries
like Rwanda, this study was designed to assess Knowledge and Practice of breast cancer
preventive practices among female health science students of the College of Medicine and
Health Sciences in 2017.
Methodology: A cross-sectional study design was used for this study. A sample size of
168 study subjects was selected randomly. Self-administered questionnaires were used to
collect information. Data were analysed using SPSS version 21. Descriptive statistics
such as frequencies and percentages were computed and findings were presented in form
of tables and figures.
Results: A total of 168 respondents participated in the study, participants had low
knowledge about preventive practices (19.1%). Level of practice was low too; about only
56 (33.3%) respondents had done breast self- examinations, from these only a third of
them practiced monthly (n=18). Some causes reported by students who had poor BSE
practice were absence of symptoms in the breast (38.4%) and lack of knowledge
about steps of BSE (28.6%).
Conclusion and recommendation: Knowledge and practice of breast cancer preventive
practices such as BSE was low. Being healthy was the major mentioned reasons for not
doing BSE. The University of Rwanda is recommended to promote awareness about
simple and cost effective methods such as BSE through emergence of groups in the
University and celebrating days like breast cancer day.
