Breast Cancer: Knowledge, Attitudes on Risk Factors and Means of Screening by Medical Students from Lomé, Togo

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in women around the world. The objective of this study was to assess knowledge and attitudes about breast cancer screening among students in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Lome. Methods: This was a prospective descriptive transversal study conducted among students enrolled in the Faculty of Health Sciences (FSS) of the University of Lome (UL) in the 2019 school year account 2020. The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge and attitudes of medical students about breast cancer screening. Results: In total, the questionnaire was completed by 934 students, for a response rate of 57.1%. The most frequently mentioned risk factors were the presence of a family history of breast cancer (n = 799, 85.55%) and the use of oral or injectable contraceptives (n = 606, 64.88%). There is a statistically significant link between the participants’ knowledge of the self-examination and clinical examination of the breasts and certain socio-demographic characteristics, namely age (OR = 0.2, 95% CI [0.11 - 0.75], p-value 0.0001), the level of study (OR = 1.5, 95% CI [0.55 - 2.46], p-value = 0.0054), the follow-up of a course on breast cancer (OR = 2.63, 95% CI [0.32 - 4.33], p-value = 0.009) and the effectiveness of an internship in a gynecology-obstetrics department (OR = 0.77, 95% CI [0.49 - 2.56], p-value 0.0001). Similarly, there is a statistically significant link between participants’ knowledge of mammography and certain socio-demographic characteristics, namely age (OR = 0.75, 95% CI [0.50 - 0.84], p-value = 0.0005), the level of study (OR = 1.92, 95% CI [1.11 - 3.46], p-value 0.0001), the follow-up of a course or training on breast cancer (OR = 2.44, 95% CI [0.08 - 3.91], p-value 0.0001) and the effectiveness of an internship in a gynecology-obstetrics department (OR = 0.62, 95% CI [0.33 - 0.85], p-value Conclusion: Knowledge and attitudes related to breast cancer screening have been found to be generally satisfactory to medical students. Active measures are needed to develop educational programs for health personnel, which could enable them to disseminate knowledge and positively influence patient attitudes.