Purpose: Breast cancer (BC) is the most prevalent cancer worldwide, and second most common cause of cancer-related deaths among women worldwide. Early detection of BC significantly improves prognosis; thus, awareness is an important aspect of BC morbidity and survival as well as the economic burden. This systematic review aimed to explore awareness of BC among women in Saudi Arabia.
Patients and methods: A systematic search was performed using Medline, Scopus, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and Google Scholar for all cross-sectional studies conducted in Saudi Arabia, published after the year 2000 and in English. The quality assessment of the included studies was performed using the AXIS tool.
Results: The total number of included articles after full-text assessment was 13 articles that were conducted between 2005 and 2022. The sample size of all the articles was 7,562 women. All the studies categorized BC awareness into low, moderate, and high groups. The level of low awareness among women reached 66.3% (n=2808), 13.5% (n=570) had moderate awareness levels, and 20.2% (n=858) had high awareness levels. Furthermore, 59.4% (n=1446) of the participants did not perform breast self-examination (BSE) regularly.
Conclusion: The level of awareness and knowledge regarding BC and BSE was significantly low among women in Saudi Arabia, as all included studies except one have indicated. We highly recommend and urge the implementation of effective special programs and campaigns to raise awareness regarding BC and integrating BSE into school health programs dedicated to women living in Saudi Arabia.
Keywords: Saudi Arabia; awareness; breast cancer; breast self-examination; knowledge; women.
© 2023 AlRajhi et al.