HEALTH BELIEF AND BREAST SELF – EXAMINATION BEHAVIOR AMONG FEMALE STUDENTS AT A UNIVERSITY IN NAKHON SI THAMMARAT

Abstract

A breast self-examination is a quick detection for an abnormal breast. However, a proportion of female students who perform a breast self-examination is relatively small It depends on an individual belief. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between health beliefs and self-breast examination behaviors among female undergraduate students in a university in Nakhon Si Thammarat. This is a cross-sectional study of 409 female students in the academic year 2016.The data were collected during August-November 2015.The participants completed a questionnaire which consists of a demographic data, health beliefs and breast self-exam behaviors. The test-retest reliability was .84. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and one-way analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA).

            The results showed that only 31.5% of the participants had regular breast self-exam. Only 4.2% of them had regular checkup. More than 59.17% did not know how to perform a breast self-examination. The perceived susceptibility and perceived barriers were moderate level. The perceived severity of breast cancer and the perceived benefits of breast self-examination were high. The perceived severity of breast cancer and perceived barriers were significantly related to the breast self- examination behaviors (p<.001). It’s important to enhance a breast self-examination among undergraduate students.