Background: Breast
cancer (BC) is one of the malignant diseases taking the lion’s share role in
the devastating effects caused by cancer. BC related awareness and practice of
females are known to have crucial contribution in the prevention and control
efforts. The worst aspects of the disease in Ethiopia include absence of research
and thus very limited information on any aspect.The study
assessed knowledge and practice on BC among
women household heads.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample
of 845 women. The sample size was divided among five randomly selected kebeles (smallest government administrative units)
proportional to the number of households. Samples were selected by systematic sampling technique.
Data were collected by trained data collectors through a face-to-face interview
using pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire from female household heads. Pearson chi-square and logistic regression
tests were used to assess the determinants of BC knowledge and breast cancer
self examination (BSE) practice. Results: The respondents’ age ranged from 20 to 75
years with a mean age of 33.66 ± 10.8. Onefifth (19.8%) of the respondents
were illiterate, while 257(31.8%) had primary education. Majority of the
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