Breast self examination practices among female secondary school teachers in a rural community in Oyo State, Nigeria

The objective of the study was to assess female secondary school teachers’ knowledge and attitude of breast self examination (BSE) and to describe the extent of practice of breast self examination among them. This study employed a descriptive design and data was collected with the aid of validated semi structured questionnaire from 100 female teachers in all the five secondary schools in Oko, Oyo State, and analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The result showed that 82% of the respondents were aware of breast self examination practices and their source of this information was from mass media (55%) and friends (25%). Fifty-four respondents had poor knowledge of BSE and 48% had negative attitude towards practice of BSE and majority (62%) had a low practice. The study however, revealed that majority of the respondents who practice BSE do not know what to look for. The results further showed that, there is no significant relationship between age of the respondents and their awareness (X2 = 8.322;p = 0.0800;df = 4) and knowledge (X2 = 14.501;p = 0.264 and df = 8) of breast self examination. This study concluded that there is poor knowledge and attitude towards BSE practice among the secondary school teachers in Oko community and with unsatisfactory practice. It therefore, suggests that breast awareness campaign and self efficacy development is important for teachers in secondary schools to aid early detection and better prognosis of breast cancer in this community, and this will have a multiplier effect on female secondary school girls.

Diabetes knowledge and self-care practices among people living with type 2 diabetes mellitus in a diabetes clinic in Southwestern Nigeria

Objective:The objective of this study is to assess the knowledge and self-care practices of people living with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM).Materials and Methods:The study was conducted in a clinic in Southwestern Nigeria.It adopted a cross-sectional design.The sample consists of 107 people living with T2DM.Data were collected using Diabetes Knowledge Questionnaire and Revised Self-care Inventory Scale.Results:The mean diabetes knowledge of the participants was 16.2±3.0 and 70.1%had inadequate knowledge of T2DM.The mean diabetes self-care practice score among the participants was 49.9±4.9,and 89.7%reported poor diabetes self-care practice.There is no significant difference in the knowledge of diabetes between male(16.42±3.42)and female(16.12±2.8)participants(t=0.45;P=0.65),and no significant difference in self-care practice of male(49.23±4.51)and female(50.06±5.07)participants(t=0.75,P=0.46).In addition,there is no correlation between age and knowledge of diabetes(r=-0.18,P=0.07)and self-care practices(r=0.08,P=0.38)of participants.No significant relationship was found between knowledge of diabetes and diabetes selfcare practices(χ^(2)=1.605,P=0.448)Conclusion:Knowledge of diabetes and self-care practices of people living with T2DM in this study were poor.Effort should be directed at improving their diabetes knowledge and self-care practices.