Introduction:

Breasts self-examination and testicles self-examination are simple, economic, safe, non-invasive early detection’s methods that do not require any special tool for their performance and that foster a higher awareness and knowledge on your own body.

Objective:

To determine the knowledge of the breast or testicles self-examination practice in a group of university students.

Methods:

Descriptive, cross-sectional study. It was performed a questionnaire on the knowledge of the breast or testicles self-examination, tobacco and alcohol consumption, and socio-demographic variables. Data analysis included frequencies and percentages distribution, and prevalence ratios.

Results:

From the total of the sample, 43,9% were men, and 30,7% of them expressed to have knowledge on how to perform the testicles self-examination. Males corresponding to high strata, the ones that were in third year of the major, and those who had studies related to the Health’s Faculty showed higher rates of knowledge. From women, 73,7% knew how to perform the breasts self-examination showing higher rates of knowledge the ones that were in the fourth year of the major, the ones that belonged to higher strata and the ones that had studies related with the Health’s Faculty. There was not found statistic association with the knowledge on testicles self-examination; while being older than 22 years old and belonging to high strata were predisposing factors for breasts self-examination.

Conclusions:

Women have higher perception of the importance for health of self-care, while they show more knowledge on the procedures to perform self-examination. Nevertheless, there are men and women that do not know yet how to perform it, that is why it is important to develop and implement programs of education, prevention and promotion of the self-examination in university students.

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