Effectiveness of Structured Teaching Program on Knowledge Regarding Breast Self Examination among Adolescent Girls at Selected College, Chengal Pattu District

Background: Women and men share many similar health problems, but women also have their own health issues, which deserve special consideration in developed and developing countries, breast cancer is shown as a major health problem. Breast cancer is the leading malignant tumour and it consists 30% of cancers among women. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths. In India, the incidence of breast cancer is increasing, with an estimated 80,000 new cases were diagnosed annually it is reported that one in 22 women in India is likely to suffer from breast cancer during her lifetime. At present a simple, inexpensive and early implant for the detection of breast cancer is breast self- examination. It is one of the simplest and most important health programmes no promote early detection.

Materials and Methodology: The researcher had used a quantitative research approach by employing quasi experimental pretest post test only group research design and Random sampling technique was adopted to selected 100 Adolescent girls with the age group of 17 to 23 years who met inclusion criteria at selected College, Chennai (2021).The investigator collected the demographic data such as age, marital status, type of family, residence, weight from the respondents by using the self-structured questionnaire after obtaining informed consent. Self structured multiple-choice questionnaire was used as a Research Tool to assess the Knowledge and practice on Self breast examination, knowledge on Breast cancer and use of Mammography. The conceptual framework used for the study was based on “Becker’s health belief model.”

Result: The frequency and percentage of pre-test and post-test level knowledge regarding breast self- examination shows majority of female students in pre-test 65 of them(65%) had inadequate knowledge remaining 35 of them (35%) had moderate knowledge and none of them adequate knowledge regarding breast self-examination but in post-test majority 88 of them (88%) had adequate knowledge remaining 12 of them(12%) had moderately adequate knowledge and none of them inadequate knowledge regarding breast self-examination. Over all comparison of mean values between pre-test 11.32 and post-test 26.3 of knowledge regarding breast self-examination and ‘t’ value 17.57 obtained was found to be significant at 0.05 level. So that the structured teaching programme has a significant effect in increasing the knowledge regarding breast self examination among adolescent girls. It shows the effectiveness in improving awareness regarding breast self-examination.

Conclusion: Regular breast self-examination can identify any abnormal changes in breast to establish good prognosis it the young groups of women are targeted with accurate information and encouragement they will learn accurate information and encouragement they will learn to examine themselves and detect every Minute changes early in their later life.