Breast cancer knowledge among students of high schools from Lublin region

Jankowska Paula, Jankowski Krzysztof, Mizerski Grzegorz, Rudnicka Drożak Ewa. Breast cancer knowledge among students of high schools from Lublin region. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2018;8(6):227-236. eISNN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1284089 http://ojs.ukw.edu.pl/index.php/johs/article/view/5561 https://pbn.nauka.gov.pl/sedno-webapp/works/866698 The journal has had 7 points in Ministry of Science and Higher Education parametric evaluation. Part b item 1223 (26/01/2017). 1223 Journal of Education, Health and Sport eissn 2391-8306 7 © The Authors 2018; This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author (s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial license Share alike. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper. Received: 02.05.2018. Revised: 18.05.2018. Accepted: 06.06.2018. Breast cancer knowledge among students of high schools from Lublin region Paula Jankowska, Krzysztof Jankowski, Grzegorz Mizerski, Ewa Rudnicka Drożak Chair and Department of Family Medicine, Medical University of Lublin ABSTRACT Introduction Breast cancer, with an estimated 1.67 million new cases diagnosed in 2012 (25% of all cancers), is the second most common neoplasm worldwide. It is also the most frequent proliferative process among women. Objective Evaluation of the level of students’ knowledge concerning risk factors and prophylaxis of breast cancer. Material and methods The study was conducted among randomly selected students of high schools from Lubelskie region between April and June 2017. Participation in the study was voluntary and anonymous. The study group consisted of 137 students. The study used the method of a diagnostic survey using a questionnaire constructed by the authors. The obtained results were statistically analyzed using the STATISTICA 13 program. The significance of intergroup differences was verified with Pearson chi-square test. Results The vast majority of students indicated the following main risk factors of breast cancer: family history, genetic predispositions, smoking and advanced age. In the respondents opinion, palpable tumor, changes in the size or shape of the breast and enlargement of axillar lymph nodes were the main symptoms of breast cancer. The Internet was indicated as the main source of breast cancer knowledge. Conclusions Interviewed students showed relatively low level of knowledge concerning problem of breast cancer risk factors. Young people use Internet as a main source of information about breast cancer and its prophylaxis. According to the results, it is necessary to mobilize health professionals, to promote rules for the prevention of breast cancer among young women. There is a need of new, wide, persuasive social campaigns from the area of breast cancer prevention. Keywords: Breast Neoplasms, Prevention and Contro