Practicing Breast Self-Examination Related Knowledge among Women at General Hospitals in Duhok City

Background and aims: Despite the consideration that the Breast Cancer is a preventable cancer, it's still known as the most common cancer among women worldwide. Early detection of it is performed by a medical and self-screening procedure which is Breast Self-Examination (BSE). It makes women more "breast aware", which in turn may lead to an earlier diagnosis of BC. The aims of the study are to assess the level of womens knowledge regarding practicing BSE, and identify the main reasons regarding practicing BSE. Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted among 200 women attending General Hospitals in Duhok city at the time of data collection 28 January to 10 March 2020. A structured questionnaire was used by researchers to gather the data related to socio-demographic, the knowledge of practicing BSE, the reasons for practicing BSE. Results: Among all women who were interviewed, about (28.5%) practiced BSE , among those women who had practiced BSE, (16.5%) of them had irregular BSE, 6.5% of the woman who had practiced it monthly, about (82.5%) of women had a poor knowledge regarding practicing BSE correctly, very little of them had good practicing BSE knowledge (2%). The main reason for doing it was getting information from mass media in (14%). Conclusions: The majority of women had low knowledge level about practicing BSE. Effective media and providing health education are required to improve the level of awareness toward it. The professional healthcare provider should be contributing to knowledge transfer whenever the opportunity arises. Keywords: breast self-examination, Breast Cancer, Knowledge, Practice