PRACTICE OF SCREENING FOR BREAST CANCER AMONG FEMALE SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN NSUKKA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ENUGU STATE, NIGERIA: IMPLICATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Dr C.C Igbokwe; R.N Ezema; & L.I. Abugu

PRACTICE OF SCREENING FOR BREAST CANCER AMONG FEMALE

SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN NSUKKA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ENUGU STATE, NIGERIA:

IMPLICATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

 

Dr C.C Igbokwe; R.N Ezema; & L.I. Abugu

Department of Human Kinetics and Health Education

University of Nigeria Nsukka.

 

Abstract

Prevention is better than cure is the cue message of public health. Breast cancer is a public health problem globally. The study determined the practice of screening for breast cancer among female secondary school teachers in Nsukka L.G.A of Enugu state, Nigeria. Four research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. The cross-sectional survey research design was adopted. The study population comprised of 910 female secondary school teachers in Nsukka L.G.A, as at the time of the study. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select a sample of 278 respondents. Researchers’ designed validated and reliable questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection. Frequencies and percentages were used to answer research questions while chi-square statistic was used to test the null hypotheses at .05 level of significance. The result indicated a very low level of practice for CBE (18.3%) and mammography (4.0%), with high practice for BSE (72.7%). There was very low level practice of BCS based on age, educational qualification and location. There was no significant difference in the practice of BCS based on age (χ2= 3.685, P=.319 > .05), educational qualification (χ2= 1.995, P = .575 > .05) and location (χ2= 2.245, P =.394> .05). The researchers recommended among other things, that the ministry of education should organize regular sensitization workshops for teachers in the study area on the benefits of screening for breast cancer especially CBE and mammography which will hopefully improve their practice and invariably reduce morbidity and mortality from breast cancer.

 

Keywords: Practice, Screening, Breast Cancer, Female Secondary School Teachers.