HEALTH COMMUNICATION AND BEHAVIOURAL PRACTICE OF WOMEN TOWARDS BREAST CANCER SCREENING IN LAGOS STATE

The global burden of Breast Cancer is increasing with an effect on the physical, mental and socio-economic wellbeing of the human population. Existing studies have majorly focused on the prevalent rate and the clinical analysis of the disease, to the neglect of the behavioural practices and the influence of information sources on breast cancer behaviours. With the aid of the Health Belief Model, this study on the one hand examined the perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barrier, self efficacy and cues to action of women towards breast cancer screening in Lagos state, Nigeria and the influence of information sources on these behaviors on the other hand. A cross-sectional survey was employed in eliciting information from 400 women respondent randomly selected through multi-stage sampling technique method. The study revealed that while majority of the respondents 317(79.3%) [mean score of 3.99 and a standard deviation of 0.93] had a high susceptibility perception of having breast cancer, internet related channels of communication had a greater influence on this perception. Findings also show that internet predominantly influenced the severity perception of the women as, majority 358(49.6%) believed that the thought of breast cancer-related complications increases their fear [mean score of 4.30 and a standard deviation of 0.85]. Furthermore, radio channel of communication significantly influenced the benefits perception of women engaging in breast self examination (BSE), as a total of 377(94.3%) of the respondents believed that engaging in BSE will help detect a lump early. On perceived barrier of women towards BSE which was influenced by interpersonal communication of friends and relatives, majority 42.6% of the women believed that religious related factors hinders them from performing breast self-examination [mean score of 3.05 and a standard deviation of 1.24]. Based on the findings, this study concludes that information sources plays a pivotal role on the breast cancer beliefs and behavioural practices towards breast self examination among women in Lagos State, Nigeria. It is therefore recommended that a national communication policy that will incorporate the use of information sources to strategically influence the beliefs and behavioural practices of woman towards breast cancer management in Nigeria be developed. Such policy will further engender the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 3