A Preliminary Psychometric Assessment of the Attitude of Health Trainee Undergraduate Students towards Breast - Self Examination in Ghana.

Abstract

Breast self-Examination (BSE) is the cheapest most recommended Breast Cancer (BC) preventive tool for resource-deprived settings. There is paucity in the attitude research domain and comparative gender assessments of the BSE knowledge, attitude and performance (KAP) literature. The purpose of this study was to assess the combined and exclusive gender BSE attitude of undergraduate health trainees and to determine significant differences between scores of both genders.The study used an online cross-sectional survey method. 336 health undergraduate students of the College of Health Sciences (CoHS) of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) were purosively sampled for assessment of their BSE knowledge, attitude and performarmance (KAP). The study found that compared to the construction groups’ average norm of 101.17 (SD = 9.55), our study participants’ (SPs) BSE attitude was lower (92.51; SD = 11.80). However, using popular mid-point and 3- part attitude scoring methods, our SPs’ attitude scores were comparable to sub-regional and national findings. Moreover,the male participants scored a generally high BSE attitude but significantly lower compared to their female counterparts (p < 0.5). The study recommend the need to adjust the curricula of all health trainees in developing nations such as Ghana to reflect relevant BC preventive measures. Furthermore, BSE research, education and advocacy should involve more males as important BC BSE stake holders.