Psychosocial Problems of Rural Indian Women Practising Breast Self-Examination – a Community-Based Study from Southern India

Abstract

Introduction

Globally, breast cancer affects 2.5 million people annually. Younger women with advanced-stage cancers had a lower survival rate, but early detection enhanced survival chances by 27 to 47%. Breast self-examination (BSE) has led to early detection and higher rates of benign biopsies. Studies evaluating the psychosocial impact of BSE are few in India which has been attempted in the present study.

Methods

The community-based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among rural women aged 30 years and above, who have done BSE at least once without present or prior breast abnormalities in the field practice area of Model Rural Health Research Unit, Tirunelveli. The research questionnaire was developed based on the findings of focus group discussion (FGD) on the same objective in the study area.

Results

Among 379 participants, 146 (38.5%) felt confident in their BSE knowledge, 28.2% (n=107) and 5.5% (n=21) of the respondents experienced anxiety and depression while practising BSE, respectively. There is a significant difference between the mean anxiety levels (p-value=0.002) and depression (p-value=0.013) of individuals who have detected anomalies during BSE and those who have not.

Conclusion

Regular counselling has to improve knowledge about BSE, like the timing and method of examination, and decreases the anxiety and depression level.

Keywords:

• breast cancer
• self-examination
• screening
• Hamilton scales
• rural women

Abbreviations

BSE, Breast Self-Examination; CBE, Clinical Breast Examination; FGD, Focus Group Discussion; MRHRU, Model Rural Health Research Unit; NPCDCS, National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke; SD, Standard Deviation.

Acknowledgments

I thank my postgraduates Dr Athisayamani and Dr Subhash Mehta who helped me in data collection. I thank the NIE scientist Dr Yuvaraj who helped me to conduct the study. I express my sincere gratitude to Dr P. Manickam, Scientist E, Mr T. Daniel Rajasekar, Senior Technical Officer, Mrs Gayathri K, Technician II, and Mr Balusamy M, Technician II for their valuable comments and support. I also thank Dr Muthu, Scientist C and Mrs Maryam Jamila. S Project Assistant-Statistics of MRHRU for this support.

Disclosure

The authors declare that there is no conflicts of interest in this work.