Deribe LeulAman Salwa2018-07-182023-11-062018-07-182023-11-062016-05http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/9140Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women of developed anddeveloping countries. Among the screening methods, breast self-examination is the physicalexamination of the women’s breasts that is conducted by oneself that is easy, safe and requiresno cost or specific equipment. However, in resource limited countries like Ethiopia, the figureappears to be much less. Therefore, Breast self-examination should be encouraged as early detection means of breast cancer in order to avert the related morbidities and mortalities. Objective: To assess the practice of Breast self-examination and its associated factors amongwomen seeking care in public health centers of Addis Ababa. Method: An institution based cross-sectional study design on sample size of 422 was used tocollect data from March 01-30, 2016. A simple random sampling technique was employed for the selection of Health centers and then informants were selected by using systematic randomsampling method. Epi data version 3.5 and SPSS version 22 was used for data entry and analysisrespectively. Moreover, Logistic regression analysis was fitted and odds ratios with 95%Confidence intervals were computed and p values less than 0.05 were considered significant. Result: There were 403 respondents, which gives a 95.5% response rate from the expected 422.Below one fourth 18.6% of the respondents regularly practiced BSE. The most common reason for not practicing BSE was “I don’t have breast problem” 92(36.9%). Regarding the questionsdesigned to assess BSE knowledge of the respondents, 239(59.3%) of the participants werefound knowledgeable. Two hundred fourty four (60.5%) of the women were found tohave good attitude towards BSE. The odds of women to practice BSE who arecohabiting with their partner were 0.4 times lower than those who are not. On theother hand the likelihood of practicing BSE is 3 times higher among women whohave good attitude towards BSE [AOR=3.1 (0.12, 0.78)]. There was also significantassociation between good practicing of BSE and ever being examined by a healthprofessional [AOR=5.22(2.62, 10.41)] and having ever discussed the importance withother people [AOR=2.95(1.43,6.08)]. Conclusion: this study revealed low level of BSE practice. In order to improve women’s healthseeking behavior and screening practice, it is vital to initiate interventions that seek to providehealth education, and to encourage preventive practice. Keywords: breast self-examination, breast cancer, knowledge, perception, screening.enBreast self-examination,Breast Cancer Knowledge Perception ScreeningThesis