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Journal of Science Foundation
January 2019, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 34-39
ISSN (Print) 1728-7855
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3329/jsf.v17i1.44865
Original Article
Knowledge about Breast Cancer among the Nursing Students at a Teaching
Institute in Dhaka City
Negar Fouzia
1
, Umma Taj Lovely
2
, Shimul Akter
3
, Md. Abdullah Yusuf
4
, Eliza Omar Eva
5
Abstract
Background: Breast cancer is a life threatening illness. Therefore the knowledge and awareness among
the nursing students is a crucial issue. Objective: The purpose of the present study was to assess the level
of knowledge on breast cancer among graduate nursing students. Methodology: This study was designed
as descriptive type of cross sectional type study. This study was carried out in the Department of Public
Health at North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. This study was conducted from April 2017 to
September 2017 for a period of six (06) months. All girls nursing student at any age who were studied in
the Pallabi Nursing Institute, Mirpur, Dhaka were selected as study population. The students were
voluntarily included in the study with their consent and they were neither supported nor additionally
burdened financially. A structured Likert scale questionnaire was provided for collection necessary data
and was incorporated items from both dependent and independent variables. Questionnaire was designed
both in English for the respondents. Result: A total number of 300 nursing students were recruited for this
study. Poor knowledge was found in majority of the study population which was 285(95.0%) respondents
and the rest 15(5.0%) had good knowledge. Conclusion: In conclusion the nursing students have poor
knowledge and awareness about the prevention of breast cancer. [Journal of Science Foundation
2019;17(1):34-39]
[Reviewed: 3 October 2018; Accepted on: 1 November 2018; Published on: 1 January 2019]
Introduction
Breast cancer is the most common female cancer worldwide representing nearly a quarter (23%) of all
cancers in women (Parkin et al., 2005). The global burden of breast cancer is expected to cross 2 million by
the year 2030, with growing proportions from developing countries (Fry and Prentice-Dunn 2006). Globally,
1
Senior Lecturer, SPKS Nursing Institute, Dhaka, Bangladesh
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Shahabuddin Medical College, Dhaka, Bangladesh
3
Assistant Professor, Department of Gynaecology & Obstetrics, Monowara Sikder Medical College, Sharitpur, Bangladesh
4
Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, National Institute of Neurosciences & Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh
5
Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Correspondence: Dr. Negar Fouzia, Senior Lecturer, SPKS Nursing Institute, Dhaka, Bangladesh; Email: negarfouzia@gmail.com;
Cell no.: +8801712101747
Copyright: ©2019. Fouzia et al. Published by Journal of Science Foundation. This article is distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International CC BY-NC License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). This license
permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, you give
appropriate credit to the original author(s) and is not used for commercial purposes