Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jan 14, 2022; 10(2): 538-546
Published online Jan 14, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i2.538
Knowledge, attitude, practice and factors that influence the awareness of college students with regards to breast cancer
Qiao-Ni Zhang, Hui-Xia Lu
Qiao-Ni Zhang, Clinical Medical College, Dali University, Dali 671003, Yunnan Province, China
Hui-Xia Lu, Gynecology and Obstetrics, Clinical Medical College, Dali University, Dali 671003, Yunnan Province, China
Author contributions: Zhang QN contributed to the project development. Data collection and manuscript writing; Lu HX contributed to the manuscript revision; all authors reviewed the manuscript.
Supported by the grant from the Master's Scientific Fund Project of Education Department of Yunnan Province (No. 2020Y0583) and the Yunnan Provincial University Joint Fund (No. 2018FH001-073).
Institutional review board statement: All subjects provided informed consent and participated voluntarily. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the first affiliated hospital of Dali University (No. DFY20200712).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at haohao021021@foxmail.com.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hui-Xia Lu, MD, Senior Researcher, Gynecology and Obstetrics, Clinical Medical College, Dali University, No. 32 Jiashibo Street, Dali 671003, Yunnan Province, China. haohao021021@foxmail.com
Received: June 17, 2021
Peer-review started: June 17, 2021
First decision: July 26, 2021
Revised: August 6, 2021
Accepted: December 2, 2021
Article in press: December 2, 2021
Published online: January 14, 2022
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Breast cancer has the highest incidence of all global cancers. Recent data show that breast cancer is becoming more prevalent in the younger population. Therefore, preventing breast cancer in young populations is a significant priority for public health. Relevant investigations of the incidence of breast cancer in young females have already been undertaken in China; however, none of these previous studies investigated the awareness of female college students with regards to breast cancer.

AIM

To investigate the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of female college students in Yunnan with regards to breast cancer and a series of influential factors.

METHODS

A random sample of 1387 female college students from two universities in Dali city were investigated by questionnaires.

RESULTS

The total KAP scores for breast cancer were 9.86 ± 2.50, 3.19 ± 2.01 and 13.31 ± 2.49, respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that educational grade was the most significant influential factor underlying the level of knowledge female college students had with regards to the treatment of breast cancer (P < 0.05). Registered residence and educational grade were the most significant factors that influenced attitude (P < 0.05). Age, registered residence, grade and major, were the most significant factors that influenced behavior (P < 0.05). The KAP of female college students in western Yunnan with regards to breast cancer were low.

CONCLUSION

There is an urgent need to provide standardized publicity and educational strategies in China to improve the knowledge, attitude, and practice, of college students with regards to breast cancer.

Keywords: Breast cancer, Regression analysis, Rejuvenation, Western Yunnan, College students, Knowledge, attitude and practice

Core Tip: By applying self-designed questionnaires that specifically targeted the knowledge, attitude, and practice of college students at two universities, we were able to ascertain that the knowledge levels of college students in Yunnan with regards to breast cancer were low. Collectively, our data indicated that we should strengthen publicity and educational strategies on university campuses with regards to breast cancer, particularly in terms of prevention, self-examination and examination methods. These strategies will reduce the incidence of breast cancer, specifically in the younger population.