Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in Saudi Arabia with a higher mortality rate in comparison to other more advanced countries. This study aims to judge the effectiveness of awareness campaigns by assessing the improvement
in knowledge regarding breast cancer and attitude towards screening after attending breast cancer awareness campaign, in addition to exploring areas of defective knowledge. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study is a community-based pre-post study. A pre-campaign questionnaire was distributed among 119 females to assess their knowledge about cancer of breast and attitude towards its screening methods from September 2020 to September 2021. After which an online awareness campaign was conducted due to Covid-19 restriction to educate the participants on breast cancer and its screening methods. This was followed by the distribution of a post-campaign questionnaire to assess improvement in knowledge and attitude. The collected data was then analyzed using Microsoft Excel software and IBM SPSS. Results and Conclusion: A significant increase was observed in the total scores of all participants (p=0.00) along with number of correct answers for knowledge and misconception related questions (p=0.003, p=0.021) after attending the awareness programs. There was a smaller increase in participant percentage with an encouraging attitude towards mammograms than towards BSE after the awareness campaign was conducted. Recommendations: More effective awareness campaigns should be conducted across the Kingdom and females need to be reassured regarding their concerns about mammograms.
Keywords: Screening of Breast cancer, Breast Self-Examination (BSE),
mammogram, awareness campaign, early detection, metastasis