A Preliminary Psychometric Assessment of the Attitude of Tertiary Health Trainee Undergraduate Students Towards Breast - Self Examination in K.N.U.S.T, Ghana

Breast self-Examination (BSE) is the cheapest most recommended Breast Cancer (BC) preventive tool for resource deprived settings. There is paucity in the Attitude research domain of the BSE literature. The purpose of this study is to assess the combined and exclusive gender BSE attitude of undergraduate health trainees and to determine significant difference between scores of both genders. Online cross-sectional method was used to assess BSE attitude of 336 mixed gender purposively sampled KNUST College of Health Sciences (CoHS) students. Compared to the constructors’ average BSE attitude score of 101.17 (SD = 9.55), our Study Participants’ BSE attitude is lower (92.51; SD = 11.80). However, using popular attitude mid-point and 3 part scoring methods, our Study Participants (SPs) attitude scores are comparable to sub-regional and national findings. Also contrary to the authors’ expectation, the male participants scored generally high BSE attitude but significantly lower compared to their female compatriots (p < 0.5). Implication, contextual challenges and recommendations for future research have been discussed. BSE KAP research and education must involve more males as important BSE stake holders and there is the need to adjust the curicullum of all health trainee students in developing nations to reflect relevant BC preventive measures.