Practice of breast self-examination among high risk Chinese women in Hong Kong

Background The incidence of breast cancer in Hong Kong is increasing and br east self-examination (BSE) as a screening tool is becoming more popular, e specially among first-degree relatives (FDR) of breast cancer victims. BSE may be more applicable to Chinese women as their breast size is smaller. Th is study explores the BSE practice in this group of women. Methods A cross sectional study was conducted by sending questionnaires to 330 FDR of breast cancer patients treated in the Department of Surgery, Uni versity of Hong Kong. BSE behavior was studied with respect to its frequenc y, awareness, completeness and confidence of practice. Results 110 subjects returned the questionnaires with a response rate of 33 %. The mean age of the respondent was 37 years. Only 57 women (52%) were pr acticers. The practicers have a stronger BSE awareness (P < 0.01) and a low er mean score on thought barriers (P = 0.002) than the non-practicers. 40% of the practicers gain their BSE knowledge through clinicians and their mea n period of practice was 3.2 years. 68% of the practicers performed BSE com pletely. The overall confidence rate was 35%, but the rate was 43% among th ose who performed complete BSE. Thirteen factors possibly related to the co mpleteness and rate of confidence of BSE examination were studied. The only factor that significantly determined completeness was the time spent for e ach examination (P = 0.002). The complete practicers required a longer time than the incomplete practicers (6.60 and 2.96 min, respectively). Women wi th a stronger BSE intention (P = 0.001) and a lower mean score on thought b arriers (P = 0.001) performed the examination confidently. Conclusions Slightly over half of the FDR practice BSE. The majority perfor m a complete BSE but they are not confident in finding abnormalities. Women spending more time on BSE are associated with a Higher rate of completenes s. However, only those with;a stronger BSE intention and lesser thought bar riers are more confident in their practice.