Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Ngaoundere, Cameroon.
Institute of Medical Research and Medicinal Plant Study, Cameroon.
Heliyon. 2021 Jul 9;7(7):e07534. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07534. eCollection 2021 Jul.
Late diagnosis has been observed as the hallmark of breast cancer in Cameroonian women where over 70% of patients report with either stage III or IV of the disease, with high mortality and dire socioeconomic consequences. The present study was undertaken to assess the awareness of breast cancer, warning signs and screening methods among Health professionals and general population of Douala.
Participants included in this study were health practitioners and women randomly selected and enrolled in six health facilities in the city of Douala, Littoral Region, Cameroon. A self-administered questionnaire was designed for each group and aimed at assessing their knowledge about breast cancer, warning signs and screening practices. Then, 616 women underwent breast palpation, followed by fine needle aspiration (FNA) when a nodule was found.
Out of a total of 737 participants (121 health personnel and 616 women) interviewed, a majority (96.3%) were aware of the disease with the main source of information being the hospital (76.0%), media (47.1%) and vocational training schools (45.4%) for health personnel; medias (39.9%), health professionals (26.1%) and their entourage (21.9%) for the population. Health workforce presented suitable awareness of the risk factors for breast cancer and its clinical signs even though 37.1% of them had misconceptions and myth-based ideas on the origin of the disease. Both the population and health personnel were aware of the possibility of early screening for breast cancer and cited breast self-examination, clinical breast examination and mammography as screening techniques. Nonetheless, screening practice amongst all women is very poor and mainly due to ignorance, high cost of mammography, together with a lack of mastery of the BSE technique and the fear of actually discovering signs of the disease.
Our findings show lack of awareness and low practice of breast cancer screening amongst women in Douala and highlight the need to raise awareness and provide the right information to the public for early detection of breast cancer.
在喀麦隆女性中，乳腺癌的显著特征是晚期诊断，超过 70%的患者报告处于疾病的 III 期或 IV 期，死亡率高，社会经济后果严重。本研究旨在评估杜阿拉的卫生专业人员和一般人群对乳腺癌的认识、预警信号和筛查方法。
本研究纳入了 6 家卫生机构的卫生工作者和随机选择的女性参与者。为每组设计了一份自我管理问卷，旨在评估他们对乳腺癌、预警信号和筛查实践的了解。然后，对 616 名女性进行乳房触诊，如果发现结节，进行细针抽吸（FNA）。
在总共 737 名接受采访的参与者（121 名卫生人员和 616 名女性）中，大多数（96.3%）都了解这种疾病，主要信息来源是医院（76.0%）、媒体（47.1%）和职业培训学校（45.4%）对卫生人员；媒体（39.9%）、卫生专业人员（26.1%）及其熟人（21.9%）对人群。卫生工作者对乳腺癌的危险因素及其临床体征有适当的认识，尽管其中 37.1%的人对疾病的起源存在误解和基于神话的观念。人群和卫生人员都意识到早期筛查乳腺癌的可能性，并列举了乳腺自我检查、临床乳房检查和乳房 X 线摄影作为筛查技术。尽管如此，所有女性的筛查实践都很差，主要是因为无知、乳房 X 线摄影的高成本，以及缺乏对 BSE 技术的掌握和对发现疾病迹象的恐惧。
我们的研究结果表明，杜阿拉的女性对乳腺癌的认识不足，筛查实践率低，这突显了需要提高公众的认识，并为公众提供正确的信息，以早期发现乳腺癌。
