Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common cause of cancer affecting women and is the second
related death among women worldwide. In Uganda, breast cancer is the commonest
cancer after Kaposi’s sarcoma with an incidence of 23.4 per 100,000 women. Women in
Uganda look at breast cancer as a death sentence thus delay in seeking medical care. This
study focused to find out the factors that influence breast cancer screening among women
attending health care services from Mbarara regional referral hospital. This was a crosssectional
study conducted among women attending health care services from Mbarara
regional referral hospital. The study was randomly done among 100 women who filled
out the questionnaires for determining the factors that influence breast cancer screening
among women attending health care services from Mbarara regional referral hospital. The
proportion of women attending health care from Mbarara regional referral hospital who
have ever done breast cancer screening was still very low at 25% despite the early
screening and breast cancer diagnosis campaigns made. Hospital-based factors and sociodemographic
factors have both a negative and positive correlation with breast cancer
screening. Social demographic factors have a significant positive association with breast
cancer screening and culture, religion and distance from the hospital have a negative
correlation with breast cancer screening.