Knowledge, attitude and practice towards testicular self-examination among regular undergraduate non-health sciences university students, Debre Tabor, Amhara Regional State, North West Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Testicular self-examination is a screening technique that involves inspection and palpation of the testes for early detection of testicular cancer. The incidence of testicular cancer among 15-35 aged males have increased worldwide though being rare in the general population. In spite of increase, nine out of ten testicular cancer cases can be detected by testicular self-examination and almost 90% can be cured if earlier detected. The aim of this study was to assess knowledge, attitude and practice of testicular-self-examination and associated factors among nonhealth sciences Debre Tabor University undergraduate regular students, North West Ethiopia Methods: An institution based cross -sectional quantitative study among 422 students was conducted. Study participants were stratified based on their year and field of study. After proportional allocation study subjects were selected by simple random sampling method. Pretested structured self-administered questionnaire was used. The data was entered to Epidata version 3.1statistical software and analyzed using statistical package for social sciences version 22.0. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate analyses were carried out. Results:A total of 422 respondents were participated with a response rate of (98.3%). Out of the respondents (31.8%) had good knowledge, almost half (51.3%) of respondents had favorable attitude and (11.8%) had good practice for testicular selfexamination. The major reason (62.0%) to not perform testicular self-examination was lack of knowledge about testicular self-examination.Conclusion: Testicular self-examination knowledge and practice among respondents were inadequate due to lack of health promotion for testicular self-examination, but their attitude towards TSE was optimal. Improving information dissemination about TSE and TC may help to reduce the presentation of patients at advanced stages of TC and may reduce costs incurred in their management.

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice regarding Testicular Cancer and Testicular Self-Examination among Male Students Pursuing Bachelor’s Degree in Bharatpur Metropolitan City, Chitwan, Nepal

“…In the current study, out of 402 respondents, the majority (56.7%) of the respondents had poor knowledge. This finding is in line with other study findings from (53%) Ethiopia [ 14 ] and (53%) Bahrain [ 15 ]. This was lower than other related studies conducted (90%) in London [ 16 ] and (61.36%) in Saudi Arabia[ 11 ], although it is greater than the study findings (44%) from Turkey [ 17 ] and (41.2%) Uganda [ 6 ].…”

“…This variation might be due to the higher awareness and screening practice in developed countries compared to that of underdeveloped or developing countries. Likewise, in this study, 45.8% knew the most common signs and symptoms of TC, which is a higher figure than the study findings (23.56%) of Saudi Arabia [ 11 ], same line with the study findings (38.3%) of Turkey [ 17 ], and lower than the study findings (15%) from Bahrain [ 14 ]. In this study, regarding risk factors, 54.7% gave correct responses on family history, 58% on age, and 62.8% on prior trauma, and these findings are in contrast with the findings of Saudi Arabia which [ 11 ] shows family history of TC 29.38%, age 14.06%, and prior trauma 38.19%.…”

“…This finding is supported by the study done in (36.45%) the USA [ 6 ], and it is higher than other related studies done (26.5%) in Ethiopia [ 8 ], (15.3%) Nigeria [ 12 ], and (6%) Bahrain [ 15 ]. Consequently, 58.4% of respondents said that they do not know how to perform TSE, which is lower than the study done in (73%) Bahrain [ 15 ], (83.4%) Turkey [ 18 ], and (62%) Ethiopia [ 14 ] and higher than the study findings (31.5%) from Uganda [ 6 ]. In this study, only 5.9% said that they think that doing TSE is a sin or taboo.…”

Testicular Cancer Awareness among Men Residing in the Maltese Islands

“…The majority of men in this study were willing to perform TSE on a regular basis but more than half had never done it before and reported lack of knowledge on how to do TSE. These results are consistent with previous literature, which shows low knowledge of TSE amongst males [23,35,37,[48][49][50][51][52]. The fact that approximately 10% of the men in the current study were shown by a doctor how to perform TSE indicates a serious gap in a potential source of education on TSE.…”

“…Brenner et al [54] also reported that fewer than half of the pediatric residents educate patients on TSE since they believe it can cause excess anxiety. Increased TSE awareness training for physicians, nurses, GPs and public health o cers has been shown to decrease delay in the diagnosis of TC and improve disease-free survival [17,52,56,58]. This is important because physician recommendation on TSE practice has been found to have striking success, with men who reported a physician recommendation for TSE having at least six times higher odds of performing regular TSE compared with those who reported no such recommendation [59].…”