The effect of classroom lectures on student pharmacists' knowledge, attitude and practice of breast self-examination

Background: Women advised about breast self-examination (BSE) by healthcare professionals have greater knowledge, confidence and are more likely to practice it routinely. Many pharmacy organisations and indeed the World Health Organisation (WHO) support the pharmacists' role in public health. Objective: This study aimed to assess the effect of clinical lectures on breast cancer on knowledge, attitude and practice of BSE among student pharmacists. Methods: This study was a descriptive pre/post-type survey. Final year students of the largest pharmacy faculty in Nigeria participated in the study. A 17-item pre-tested questionnaire on knowledge, attitudes and practices of BSE was given to each participant before clinical lectures (including a case review) on breast cancer. Six weeks after the lecture, the students were given the same questionnaire. Mean differences of survey item scores were analysed (paired sample t-test for pre- and post-test score) using SPSS. Results: A total of 79 females were sampled, response rates were 91.4% and 75.95% for the pre- and post-surveys respectively. No statistically significant differences (p<0.05) were found between the mean knowledge (2.00 +/- 0.93 and 1.92 +/- 0.65), mean attitude (19.29 +/- 2.32 and 19.48 +/- 2.02) and mean practice scores (1.53 +/- 1.08 and 1.67 +/- 1.03) in the pre- and post- samples of the study. Conclusion: Health promotion techniques such as BSE should be explicitly taught and incorporated into pharmacy education.