Cancer prevention : attitudes and practices among black South African university students

Abstract

This study intended to investigate the attitudes and practices of cancer prevention among Black South African university students. The sample included 793 Black University students from non-health courses chosen at random from the University of the North, South Africa. The students were 370 (46.7%) males and 423 (53.3%) females between the ages of 18 to 25 years (M age 21.0 years, SD=3.48). Results indicate that 27.5% of the women said that they knew how to examine their breasts. About one third (34.2%) of those who knew about breast self-examination never did breast self-examination and 25.5% did it the recommended 10 and more times a year. While 87.8% had never had a cervical smear test, 6.8% had at least one the previous year. Overall, 24.2% of the male students knew how to examine their testicles for cancer, and from those who knew this 41.9% had never done it and 22.1% did it the recommended 10 times and more a year. Logistic regression found that attitudes were an independent predictor for testicles self-examination but not for breast self-examination and cervical (pap) smear test. If cancer self-examination and tests are to be adopted on a wider scale, more effective promotion will be required.


Health SA Gesondheid Vol.6(2) 2001: 12-17