[Attitudes and practices of Vaud women concerning the self examination of breasts]

A survey by personal interviews on this subject was carried out in 1984 with a representative sample of 499 women living in the Canton of Vaud. The response rate was 76.6%. Among the respondents, 61.3% practice BSE, but only 27% do so regularly. A complementary inquiry of a group of women who refused the interviews shows a lower practice rate. Women aged 40-49 years, who have benefited more than other groups from related information through their physicians, are those who do BSE most. Our results indicate that such personalized information from a doctor is strongly and positively associated with BSE practice (p less than .001), when compared with "extra-medical" information (mainly from the mass media). There are some negative reactions (fear, reluctance) when the question of BSE is taken up, but they are not major ones and do not influence the interest of the majority of the women (63.3%) in wanting to be better informed on the subject.