Background. Breast cancer is the second most prevalent form of cancer in The Gambia, with an incidence rate of approximately 15% and a mortality rate exceeding 50% in 2020. The all-age prevalence stands at 11.25 per 100,000 population. In light of this, we conducted a study to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of breast cancer screening among female university students. Method. We conducted an institutional cross-sectional study involving 361 randomly sampled female university students. Data collection was done using a pretested, self-administered questionnaire. We utilized descriptive statistics to describe the prevalence and burden of breast cancer screening among the participants. Results. Our study revealed good knowledge regarding breast cancer screening among female university students, yet 82.8% had a negative attitude about the disease. More than three-quarters (76.6%) of the respondents had never practiced any form of breast cancer screening. Notably, there was a significant association between knowledge of breast cancer screening and attitude (), and factors such as level of study (), ethnicity (), parity (), and faculty of study () influenced the participants’ knowledge. Conclusion. It is crucial to implement comprehensive awareness campaigns to address the negative attitude and poor screening practices among female university students regarding breast cancer. Additionally, providing free and widespread breast cancer screening services to students should be considered as a means to combat this disease.

中文翻译：

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乳腺癌筛查：冈比亚女大学生的知识、态度和实践

背景。乳腺癌是冈比亚第二大常见癌症，发病率约为 15%，2020 年死亡率将超过 50%。所有年龄段的患病率为每 10 万人口 11.25 例。鉴于此，我们开展了一项研究，评估女大学生乳腺癌筛查的知识、态度和实践。方法。我们对 361 名随机抽样的女大学生进行了一项机构横断面研究。数据收集是使用预先测试的自填问卷完成的。我们利用描述性统计数据来描述参与者中乳腺癌筛查的患病率和负担。结果。我们的研究显示，女大学生对乳腺癌筛查有良好的了解，但82.8%的人对此疾病持消极态度。超过四分之三（76.6%）的受访者从未进行过任何形式的乳腺癌筛查。值得注意的是，乳腺癌筛查知识与态度之间存在显着相关性（），以及学习水平等因素（），种族 （),奇偶校验 (）和研究学院（）影响了参与者的知识。结论。开展全面的宣传活动以解决女大学生对乳腺癌的消极态度和不良筛查做法至关重要。此外，应考虑向学生提供免费且广泛的乳腺癌筛查服务作为对抗这种疾病的一种手段。