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. 2020:17:37.
doi: 10.3352/jeehp.2020.17.37. Epub 2020 Dec 1.

Female medical and nursing students’ knowledge, attitudes, and skills regarding breast self-examination in Oman: a comparison between pre- and post-training

Rajani Ranganath  1 , John Muthusami  2 , Miriam Simon  3 , Tatiyana Mandal  4 , Meena Anand Kukkamulla  5
Affiliations

Female medical and nursing students’ knowledge, attitudes, and skills regarding breast self-examination in Oman: a comparison between pre- and post-training

Rajani Ranganath et al. J Educ Eval Health Prof. 2020.

Abstract

Purpose: Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women worldwide. Educational and awareness programs impact early practices of breast self-examination, resulting in the early detection of cancer and thereby decreasing mortality. The study aimed to assess the levels of knowledge and awareness of breast cancer and breast self-examination among medical and nursing students in Oman and to compare their knowledge, attitudes, and skills after a training program.

Methods: This quasi-experimental study was carried out for female 90 medical and 80 nursing students in Oman in November 2019. A pre-test questionnaire was given before the training program and a post-test questionnaire was administered after the training program. Students’ knowledge, attitude, and skills regarding breast cancer and breast self-examination were compared. Scores for skills of practicing breast self-examination were compared between lecture and activity group and lecture-only group.

Results: Pre-test and post-test data were collected from 170 female students. Significant improvements were observed in the post-test scores for students’ knowledge, attitude, and skills after the intervention (P<0.001). The mean scores for skills of practicing breast self-examination after the lecture and the activity were higher than those obtained after the lecture only (P=0.014 for medical students and P=0.016 for nursing students).

Conclusion: An educational training program on breast cancer and breast self-examination with an emphasis on skills can motivate participants to perform breast self-examination regularly, and may therefore help students to train other women to perform breast self-examination for the early detection of breast cancer.

Keywords: Breast self-examination; Early detection of cancer; Medical students; Oman.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Number of students who performed BSE before the training program. BSE, breast self-examinations.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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