Objective:

To describe the knowledge, attitudes and practices about breast self-examination in women from a rural area.

Methods:

Quantitative study of non-experimental, descriptive, cross-sectional design. The sample consisted of 139 women living in a rural area in Lambayeque-Peru. For data collection, an adapted questionnaire was used, validated by expert judgment and with Cronbach’s alpha 0.88. The data was processed and analyzed using the SPSS version 25 program.

Results:

It was found that 94.96% are unaware of breast self-examination, 93.6% of the participants have a positive attitude to perform it, however, 64.7% never know about it.

Conclusions:

The women in the study present incorrect knowledge about breast self-examination, a positive attitude towards this technique, but an inadequate practice. It is necessary to expand health educational coverage and strategies so that this population knows and practices breast self-examination.