HEALTH EDUCATION AND BEHAVIOURAL PRACTICE OF WOMEN TOWARDS BREAST CANCER SCREENING IN LAGOS, NIGERIA

 

Precious Adedoyin¹; Evaristus Adesina²; Kehinde Oyesomi³ and Babatunde Adeyeye⁴

¹Ms, Department of Mass Communication, Covenant University, NIGERIA,  Precious.adedoyinpgs@stu.cu.edu.ng

²Dr, Department of Mass Communication, Covenant University, NIGERIA, evaristus.adesina@covenantuniversity.edu.ng

³Dr, Department of Mass Communication, Covenant University, NIGERIA,   kehinde.oyesomi@covenantuniversity.edu.ng;

⁴Dr, Department of Mass Communication, Covenant University, NIGERIA, babatunde.adeyeye@covenantuniversity.edu.ng

 

Abstract

This study examined the effect of health education on breast cancer screening behavior in Lagos, Nigeria, in response to a worldwide demand for strategic information to comprehend breast cancer. Breast self-examination (BSE) remains a validated behavior intervention for preventing the global spread of breast cancer. This study examines the ability of a health belief model to predict the adoption of breast self-examination among 400 women in Lagos state, which is reputed to have the second-highest incidence of breast cancer in Nigeria. A cross-sectional study examined the relationship between health education channels and HBM components based on the demographic characteristics of research participants. On a five-point Likert scale, study constructs were rated, and the results were averaged. The findings indicate that educational sources of information have a significant effect on perceived breast self-examination vulnerability (= 0.803, R2=0.644, t-statistics=12.763>1.96, P-value =0.000 0.05), and the Path coefficient of 0.380 indicates a significant relationship between educational sources of information and women's breast self-examination self-efficacy. Furthermore, nearly half (48.3%) of participants who claimed to know how to do so said that not performing breast self-examination is the most common detrimental practice among female residents. The study concludes that, although female residents are concerned about breast cancer, a number of factors, including beliefs, lack of knowledge, and inability to perform breast self-examination, as well as insufficient information provided by various breast self-examination sources, impede the effective adoption of breast self-examination.

Keywords:  Health Education, Information Sources, Breast Cancer, Health Belief Model