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Awareness of Self-Examination, Screening, and Risk Factors for Breast Cancer Among Women Awaiting Care at the Outpatient Clinic of a Mastology Unit

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Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the awareness and practice of breast self-examination (BSE) and the awareness of screening and risk factors for breast cancer among patients from a mastology clinic and to associate such findings with sociodemographic factors of that population. A total of 202 randomly selected patients from the outpatient clinic of the Mastology Unit of São Paulo School of Medicine were interviewed. A structured questionnaire was used and included questions regarding sociodemographic variables, questions to assess the knowledge and practice of BSE, and knowledge of mammographic screening and risk factors for breast cancer. The vast majority of patients were aware of the existence of BSE (93.1%). BSE was performed by most patients (64.9%), although only 20.3% performed it adequately. Only 21.8% of respondents showed awareness of the best screening method for breast cancer. Furthermore, 17.3% of patients showed adequate awareness of risk factors for breast cancer. The analysis of sociodemographic variables showed that older, postmenopausal, and less-educated women showed better practice of BSE. Overall, the patients had no adequate awareness of BSE, mammographic screening, and risk factors for breast cancer, and the majority failed to practice BSE adequately, particularly the group of patients with the higher level of education. These data show that educational measures regarding the practice of BSE and, especially, mammograms should be emphasized, regardless of education level or family income of the patient.

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Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Disciplina de Mastologia, Departamento de Ginecologia, Escola Paulista de Medicina da Universidade Federal de São Paulo (EPM-UNIFESP), Rua Prestes João, 130, São Paulo, 04032-010, Brazil

    Andrea Y. Watanabe, Vanessa M. Sanvido, Simone Elias & Afonso C. P. Nazário

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  1. Andrea Y. Watanabe
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  2. Vanessa M. Sanvido
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  3. Simone Elias
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  4. Afonso C. P. Nazário
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Contributions

AYW designed the study, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript; VMS performed the study; SE designed the study and analyzed the data; ACPN designed the study and analyzed the data.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrea Y. Watanabe.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of Universidade Federal de São Paulo - Escola Paulista de Medicina Ethics and research committee.

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All individuals enrolled signed an informed consent after explanations on the objectives of the study.

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Not applicable.

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Watanabe, A.Y., Sanvido, V.M., Elias, S. et al. Awareness of Self-Examination, Screening, and Risk Factors for Breast Cancer Among Women Awaiting Care at the Outpatient Clinic of a Mastology Unit. J Canc Educ 37, 829–833 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-020-01892-1

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