Abstract:
Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in Sri Lanka, and Breast SelfExamination (BSE) has the potential to detect 90% of breast cancers. Despite the benefits of BSE, limited
numbers of women engage in it, and many do not know how to perform it. According to the previous
literature and Statistical findings related to breast cancer show that BSE is not popular among women in
Sri Lanka.
Objective: To explore the predictors on perceived competence for BSE among female undergraduates.
Methods: The study was descriptive cross-sectional research conducted on 427 female undergraduate
students from the Faculty of Nursing, Medicine, and Science at the University of Colombo. Data was
collected through an online questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS software.
Results: Approximately two-thirds of participants (67.2%) were between the ages of 20 and 25 years. The
majority of the study’s participants were single (90.4%). Ethnically, 87.1% were Sinhalese, and the majority
were Buddhist (77.3%). The study found a weak positive significant linear correlation between motivation
for BSE (p< .05) and perceived competence and a moderate positive significant linear correlation between
perceived competence and knowledge of BSE (p <.05). Additionally, Faculty, Academic year and
participants’ religion were significantly associated with perceived competence in BSE (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Motivation of BSE, Knowledge of BSE, Faculty, Academic year, and religion of the
participants were the predictors for the perceived competence. The conclusion highlights the need for
promoting BSE to reduce breast cancer mortality and further research to address the factors affecting BSE
among female undergraduate students in Sri Lanka.
