Study of Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (Kap) of Jordanian Women Aged 20- 65 Years towards Early Detection and Screening of Breast Cancer

Breast cancer has been the most common cancer in the world with nearly 1.7 million new cases diagnosed in 2012.Particially in Jordan, a developing country with limited resources, breast cancer incidence and mortality rates have beendoubling in the last decade The study of the knowledge, attitude, and practices of Jordanian women aged 20-65 yearstowards early detection and screening of breast cancer clearly highlights the level of awareness in the community andprovide organizations a clear vision on how to effectively increase awareness and transform the concept of screening andearly detection to practice.Objective: The study is aimed to explore the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of the female population of Jordanages from 20 to 65 years towards early detection and screening of breast cancer by assessing the overall awarenessregarding breast cancer as well as their practices on detecting and screening for the disease.Method: A qualitative and quantitative interview was conducted with individuals (n=1502) that were randomly selectedaccording to geographical distribution of female Jordanian nationals ages between 20 and 65 years old. The interviewwas done by the ‘Random Walk’ method and was aided by a Computer-Assisted Personal interviewing (CAPI). The datacollected was analyzed using SPSS software, and tested for significance using t-test.Results: The study outcomes showed that 85% of the participants are aware of breast cancer. The source of their awarenesswas mainly through TV (72%) and the majority (73%) was not actively looking to increase their knowledge. Only 19% ofparticipants are aware and underwent clinical breast examination (CBE) within the past year while only13% is familiarwith mammogram and were subject to it. As for the visit to early detection clinics, 56 % of the Jordanians are welling tovisit the clinic if they have doubt about breast cancer, while physician’s recommendation for detection and screening wasonly 9%. Finally, only 30% of participants believe greatly that breast cancer can be detected in early stages.Conclusion: The study shows that although most of the participants are familiar with breast cancer but the majorityhad little detailed knowledge while others had misconceptions and both are not seeking improvement leading to lowacknowledgement and practices of early detection and screening.