| dc.description.abstract | Breast cancer is the secondiileading caused of death worldwide aftericervical cancer, with around 9.6 million deaths each year. Indonesia has the highestinumber of breast cancer cases in Southeast Asia. In North Sumatra, there were 3,206 cancer cases reported in 2022, and 393 of them were breast cancer. One way toidetect breast cancer earlyiis by doing breast self-examinations (BSE). A preliminary survey showed that 7 out of 10 female students had never done BSE. This study aims to find out what factors are related to BSE behavior among female students from non health faculties at Universitas Sumatera Utara, class of 2022. Non health faculty students were chosen because they are assumed to have less access to health information. The 2022 class was selected based on the Ministry of Health Regulation No. 34 of 2015, which suggests that women start doing BSE regularly from the age of 20. This research used a quantitative methodiwith a cross-sectional design and simple random sampling. The resultsishowed that knowledge, attitude, sources of information, and peer support were all significantly related to BSE behavior (p=0.003 and p<0.001). Based on these findings, it is recommended that universities develop educational programs and health campaigns, collaborate with health professionals, and improve access to credible health information. Female students are expected to become more aware and disciplined in performing BSE regularly, and to be proactive in seeking and sharing reliable health information. Future researchers are encouraged to expand and deepen studies to support breast cancer prevention efforts. | en_US |
