Impact of Awareness on Health Status of Breast Cancer Patients

Abstract

Introduction: Brest Cancer is the second most common type of Cancer after lung Cancer. Hence, it is necessary to bring etiology, symptoms of awareness in the women about the breast Cancer. It is more important to the women who are affected with the Breast Cancer to be aware about the treatment, appropriate diet during the treatment, side effects of therapy and their remedies and precautions after treatment. This study was conducted to assess the impact of awareness about the disease on the health status of breast cancer patients. Material and methods: A sample of 300 patients suffering from breast cancer were selected by random sampling method. Interview schedule was structured to collect information regarding awareness of breast cancer patients. Health status assessed by anthropometric measurement for BMI and waisthip ratio, presence of clinical sign and symptoms assessed by clinical examination and estimation of hemoglobin by cyanmethemoglobin method . One way anova test was applied to determine the significance of the study. Results: It was found that maximum breast cancer patients (N=242) exhibited medium status of awareness which was found to be 80.67%. The high status of awareness was observed only in 15.33% breast cancer patients which was comparatively a small number (N=46). The least number of breast cancer patients (N=12) exhibited low status of awareness (4%). Conclusion: The study concluded that awareness of disease in breast cancer patients has a significant effect on their health status.