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Kiguli-Malwadde Elsie, Mubuuke A. Gonzaga, Businge Francis, Kawooya G. Michael, Nakatudde Rebecca, Byanyima K.Rosemary, Muyinda Zeridah. Current knowledge, attitudes and practices of women on breast cancer and mammography at Mulago hospital. The Pan African Medical Journal. 2010;5:9 Key words: Mammography, Breast cancer, Mulago Hospital, Uganda Permanent link: http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/article/5/9/full Received: 21/02/2010 - Accepted: 30/04/2010 - Published: 06/05/2010 © Kiguli-Malwadde Elsie et al. The Pan African Medical Journal - ISSN 1937-8688. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Current knowledge, attitudes and practices of women on breast cancer and mammography at Mulago Hospital
Kiguli-Malwadde Elsie1, Mubuuke A. Gonzaga1,&, Businge Francis1, Kawooya G. Michael1, Nakatudde Rebecca1, Byanyima K.Rosemary2, Muyinda Zeridah2
1 Radiology department, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, 2Mulago National Referral Hospital, Kampala, Uganda
&Corresponding Author
Mubuuke A Gonzaga, Radiology Department, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7072, Kampala, Uganda, Tel: +256 772 616788.
Background
Breast cancer is the third commonest cancer in Ugandan women. Women present late for breast cancer management which leads to high mortality rates. The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of Ugandan women concerning breast cancer and mammography.
Methods
This was a descriptive cross-sectional study where 100 women reporting to the Radiology department were interviewed. We used consecutive sampling. Interviewer-administered questionnaires were used to collect opinions of the participants. For data analysis, answers were described as knowledge, attitude, practice and they were correlated with control variables through the chi-square. Bivariate and logistic regression analyses were also used.
Results
Most of the women (71%) had no idea about mammography. More than 50% did not know about risk factors for breast cancer. The attitude towards mammography was generally negative. Regarding seeking for mammography; level of literacy, occupation and marital status were significant on bivariate analysis, however only level of literacy and employment remained the significant independent variables on logistic regression analysis. The main barrier to mammography was mainly lack of information.
Conclusion
Women in this study had inadequate knowledge and inappropriate practice related to mammography as a procedure for breast cancer investigation.
