Awareness of Breast Cancer and Its Screening among Indonesian Women

Abstract

Introduction Breast cancer has a high morbidity and mortality rate worldwide. However, most developing countries with resource constrained setting, like Indonesia, encounter several difficulties to implement mass screening for breast cancer. Aim To investigate knowledge, barriers, and behaviours of women regarding breast cancer screening among rural and urban Indonesian women. Materials and Methods This cross-divtional study was conducted among 864 Indonesian women aged ≥18 years. A self-administered questionnaire using a validated instrument was administered from March to May 2016. The ordered logistic regression model analysis was performed to further evaluate five domains of awareness regarding breast cancer screening and its determinants. A p-value under 0.05 was considered significant. Results Overall, 864 women participated in this study (response rate of 98.28%). The mean age of women was 30.01±11.01 years. Ordinal logistics regression analysis showed that urban women demonstrated better knowledge of risk factors for breast cancer, while they had poorer behaviours for the breast cancer screening method. A higher level of education (relative to no formal education) was associated with better behaviours for the breast cancer screening method, whereas being married and women living in East Nusa Tenggara were significantly related to barriers for breast cancer screening. Conclusion Urban Indonesian women had poor breast cancer screening practice, whereas they were highly educated. Participant’s characteristics like marital status and locality were found as barriers to breast cancer screening. It is likely to provide valuable insight among women in general for breast cancer screening behaviours, which in turn, will improve targeted breast health promotion