BREAST SELF-EXAMINATIONAMONG FEMALE LAW STUDENTS

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer related death among women worldwide. The most effective means of decreasing mortality rate due to breast cancer is by early detection through breast self-examination. The main purpose of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of breast self-examination among female undergraduate law students of The University of Benin. A cross-sectional descriptive questionnaire based study was used and a convenience sampling technique was used to select two hundred and thirty seven female law students in The University of Benin. The data gathering tool was a modified and adapted questionnaire. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to the data analysis. Simple frequency and the percentage was used to describe the data, while chi-square was used to test the hypotheses. The level of significance was set at p<0.05. The analysis was performed using the IBM Statistical
Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 28.0 for windows. Result shows that It showed that 88(37.1%) had good knowledge of breast self-examination, 79(33.3%) poor knowledgeand70(29.5%) had fair knowledge. It showed that 154(65.0%) of the respondents had negative attitude toward breast self-examination while 83(35.0%) had positive attitude BSE. It showed that 94(39.7%) had poor level of practice, 115(48.5%) had fair practice level, while 28(11.8%)had good level of practice. The result showed that majority of respondents have a good knowledge of breast self-examination, negative attitude towards breast self-examination and a fair practice of breast self-examination. The study therefore recommends that there is the need to develop and implement targeted educational programs focusing on breast cancer awareness and the importance of breast self-examination, emphasizing the significance of early detection and preventive measures.