Determining the Awareness of and Compliance with Breast Cancer Screening among Turkish Residential Women

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women. Despite being associatedwith high morbidity and mortality, breast cancer is a disease that can be diagnosed and treated early. Materialsand <br/><b>Methods</b>: In this cross-sectional study of 321 women, data were collected by Questionnaire, Breast CancerRisk Assessment Form and Champion’s Health Belief Model Scale. Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, Chisquaredtests and logistic regression were used in the statistical analysis. <br/><b>Results</b>: It was found that only 2.2%of women have high and very high risk levels of breast cancer risk. There is a positive correlation between earlydiagnosis techniques and Health Belief Model Sub-Dimension scores which are sensibility, health motivation,BSE (Breast self-examination) self-efficient perception and negative correlation between mammography barrierscore and BSE barrier score (p 0.05). When factors for not having BSE were examined, it was determined thatthe women who do not have information about breast cancer and the women who smoke have a higher risk ofnot having BSE. <br/><b>Conclusions</b>: It is important to determine health beliefs and breast cancer risk levels of womento increase the frequency of early diagnosis. Women’s health beliefs are thought to be a good guide for planninghealth education programs for nurses working in this area.