Objective To understand the awareness of breast cancer knowledge and its influencing factors among medical staff in maternal and child health institutions of all levels in Ordos city.

Methods From April to June 2023, a convenient sampling method was used to select 886 medical staff from maternal and child health institutions at all levels in Ordos city, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to conduct a questionnaire survey using Questionnaire Star online platform with a self-designed questionnaire on general demographic information and core knowledge of breast cancer prevention and treatment health education introduced in the national “Breast Cancer Screening Work Plan”, and the willingness to recommend to women to have breast cancer screening at an appropriate age. SPSS 19.0 software was used for multivariate logistic regression model analysis.

Results A total of 862 valid questionnaires were collected, with an effective response rate of 97.3%. The mean score of the respondents' knowledge of breast cancer prevention and treatment was 15.08 ± 5.88 out of a total score of 24. The results of multivariate analysis showed that the respondents with medical majors (clinical medicine: odds ratio OR = 7.50, 95% confidence interval 95%CI: 2.90 – 19.42; nursing: OR = 4.93, 95%CI: 1.92 – 12.66; other medical majors: OR = 4.70, 95%CI: 1.82 – 12.11), working in ultrasound/imaging departments (OR = 2.01, 95%CI: 1.03 – 3.92), and with a professional title of associate senior or higher (senior physician: OR = 3.54, 95%CI: 1.30 – 9.63; associate senior: OR = 2.56, 95%CI: 1.35 – 4.86) had better awareness of breast cancer prevention and treatment knowledge (all P < 0.05). Among the typical symptoms of breast cancer, the awareness rates of "breast lump" (82.48%), "axillary lymph node enlargement" (74.71%), and "breast skin depression or wrinkling" (74.48%) were higher; among the risk factors for breast cancer, the awareness rates of "long-term use of exogenous estrogen" (64.39%) and "family history of breast or ovarian cancer" (61.14%) were higher; among the common breast cancer screening methods, the awareness rates of clinical breast examination, breast ultrasound, and breast x-ray were all around 90%; the awareness rate of the recommended screening age in the breast cancer screening work plan was 74.71%, but the awareness rate of the screening time interval was only 24.25%. The awareness rates of screening age and screening time interval among breast cancer screening personnel (88.36%, 33.33%) were higher than those of non-breast cancer screening personnel (70.88%, 21.69%) (P < 0.001). 689 (79.93%) and 684 (79.35%) agreed that breast cancer screening can improve the early detection rate and reduce the mortality rate of breast cancer, respectively, and 831 (96.40%) were willing to recommend regular breast cancer screening to women of appropriate age.

Conclusion The awareness of breast cancer screening and the willingness to recommend breast cancer screening to women of appropriate age among medical staff in maternal and child health institutions in Ordos city are relatively high, but the awareness of breast cancer prevention and treatment knowledge needs to be improved. Professional training in breast related knowledge should be strengthened for local medical staff.