Conocimiento y práctica del autoexamen de mamas por usuarias de la Unidad de Salud de la Familia

transversal study with 116 users, from 40 to 50 years old, of a family health unit in the southwest of bahia, in order to assess the knowledge and the practice of themselves about the breast self examination (bse). a structured form was used, analyzed by poisson regression , the 75.9% of the women reported on knowing the bse and the 65.5% of the women put it into practice.the prevalence reason for knowing the bse was 1.4 times higher among women with higher scolarship, 2.85 times higher among those who know the breast cancer and more than 15% for those who consider that it is important to detect the disease early. the practice was higher among the economical active population, with more than 2 children, non-smoking, who attend to the unit for more tan 2 years, who know and feel that detecting the breast cancer early is important. from that can be deduced that it is necessary to invest more in education activities to prevent risks for the health of the women.