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gupta-reviewofbreast-2015.pdf (759.86 kB)

A review of breast cancer awareness among women in India: Cancer literate or awareness deficit?

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journal contribution
posted on 2015-09-01, 00:00 authored by Adyya GuptaAdyya Gupta, K Shridhar, P K Dhillon
© 2015 The Authors. Background Breast cancer is the most common female cancer worldwide including India, where advanced stages at diagnosis, and rising incidence and mortality rates, make it essential to understand cancer literacy in women. We conducted a literature review to evaluate the awareness levels of risk factors for breast cancer among Indian women and health professionals. Methods A structured literature search using combined keywords was undertaken on bibliographic databases including MEDLINE, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL) and SCOPUS. Searches were restricted to research published in English language peer-reviewed journals through December, 2014 in India. Results A total of 7066 women aged 15-70 years showed varied levels of awareness on risk factors such as family history (13-58%), reproductive history (1-88%) and obesity (11-51%). Literacy levels on risk factors did not improve over the 8-year period (2005-2013). On average, nurses reported higher, though still varied, awareness levels for risk factors such as family history (40.8-98%), reproductive history (21-90%) and obesity (34-6%). Awareness levels were not consistently higher for the stronger determinants of risk. Conclusion Our review revealed low cancer literacy of breast cancer risk factors among Indian women, irrespective of their socio-economic and educational background. There is an urgent need for nation- and state-wide awareness programmes, engaging multiple stakeholders of society and the health system, to help improve cancer literacy in India.

History

Journal

European Journal of Cancer

Volume

51

Issue

14

Pagination

2058 - 2066

Publisher

Elsevier

Location

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

ISSN

0959-8049

eISSN

1879-0852

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

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