OBJECTIVE: To identify the main sources of information on breast cancer used by women; to determine whether there is an association between the use of specific sources and the education level or income of these women; to determine how women evaluate their own knowledge about breast cancer (self-evaluation); to determine whether this self-evaluation has affected the habit of doing breast self-examination. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Five hundred and thirty-one women, aged 20 years or older, were randomly interviewed in a private hospital in Goiânia, GO, Brazil. RESULTS: Television was pointed out as the main source of information on breast cancer (26.5%) regardless of education level or income, followed by magazines (16.8%), talking to other people (16.2%), physicians (15.8%), newspapers (12.2%), radio (8.4%) and internet (3.9%). A chi-square test indicated association between the four most used sources of information on breast cancer and the education level and family income. CONCLUSION: Interviewed women pointed out television as their main source of information on breast cancer. Eighty-three percent of the women deemed to have average or good knowledge about breast cancer. Women who considered themselves as having good knowledge about breast cancer were more prone to perform breast self-examination at appropriate intervals.
Breast neoplasms; Detection; Screening
