Practices of Breast Self-Examination and Associated Factorsamong Female Debre Berhan University Students

Background. Breast cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer in Ethiopia of all female cancers. It is considered to be a progressivedisease with a poor prognosis if detected late. Breast self-examination is an important prevention method of breast cancer. This studywas aimed at assessing practice and associated factors of breast self-examination (BSE) among female Debre Berhan Universitystudents in Ethiopia.Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2015 among 420 using self-administrated questionnaire.Multistage sampling technique was used to select the study participants. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis weredone.Results. Majority of the study participants, 338 (84.5%), were between 20 and 24 years old with the mean age of 21.1±1.65. Only14 (3.5%) had family history of breast cancer. Two hundred fifty-six (64%) of the participants had heard about BSE and 30.25% hadgood knowledge about BSE. Mass media were the most common source of information about breast cancer. Few of the participants(28.3%)hadperformedBSE.LackofknowledgeonhowtoperformBSEwascitedasthemainreasonfornotpracticingBSE.Knowing how to perform, when to perform, and position to perform BSE and having a perception that BSE is important and usefulto detect breast cancer were significant predictors of practices of BSE.Conclusions. This study revealed that most of the participantshad low knowledge and practice of BSE. Therefore, it important to develop health educational programs in the university to raiseawareness about BSE and breast cancer so as to practice self-breast examination.