Female health college students' knowledge and attitude towards breast cancer

Background Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in Saudi Arabia and worldwide. It occurs at an earlier age in comparison with Western countries and account for 25.1 per cent of all newly diagnosed female cancers. Aims Aim was to assess knowledge level of breast cancer risk factors, the symptoms, the signs and screening methods of early detection among female students at the health colleges. Additionally, to determine the attitude of students towards the breast cancer. Methods A cross-sectional study was carried out on a representative sample of female students at the health colleges in King Abdulaziz University, through stratified sampling with proportional allocation. Results More than 78 per cent of the students had good knowledge about the symptoms and signs of breast cancer, and 76.8 per cent of them had positive attitude towards believing and treatment of breast cancer. About 75.5 per cent of students mentioned mammography is an early screening method. However, the total score of insufficient knowledge about breast cancer risk factors was 57.5 per cent. Logistic regression analysis revealed that lower grades were the predictors of insufficient knowledge about breast cancer risk factors. Conclusion Although the students had a good knowledge about the symptoms and signs of breast cancer and they had positive attitude towards believing and treatment of breast cancer, for example, most of them will consult a doctor if they develop breast cancer and they will agree to perform mastectomy if she needed, they will see a doctor within one week if they have breast lump and they thought that the breast cancer is a curable disease. However, they had insufficient knowledge of some risk factors. So, we should focus on increasing the knowledge of risk factors among the students either through regular update teaching courses and methods or through health education workshop or campaigns.