Comparison of Knowledge and Practice of Women Referring to Health Centers with Employees about the Prevention of Breast Cancer

Abstract

Background: Due to the lack of systematic prevention and screening programs for controlling breast cancer in Iran, there seems to be a lack of knowledge about risk factors, signs and symptoms. The purpose of this study was to compare the knowledge and practice of referred women to health centers with employees about prevention of breast cancer. Study Design: This is a descriptive-analytic study. Methods: The population of this study is women referred to health centers in Kermanshah with the health caregivers in 2016. Research samples as the two-stage cluster sampling were selected and studied according to the goals set. For data analysis, SPSS version 16 and descriptive statistics and analytical (Pearson correlation coefficient) were used. Results: One hundred seventy of each group, samples participated in this study. The level of knowledge and practice in the health caregivers was 49.60 and 25.57, and in the referred women was, 50.40 and 22.21, which was statistically significant (P =< .001). Only 10.34% of the health caregivers and 8.70% of the referred women performed breast self-examination tests and only in 5.90% of the health caregivers and 1.70% of the referred women" regular and monthly. 46.50% of the health caregivers performed mammography which only 1.20% each year and in the group of referred women was 34.10%, which was only 24.80% annually. Conclusions: The findings of this study indicate the bad to average levels of knowledge and practice of women participating in this study. Therefore, in order to increase the knowledge and practice of women about the prevention of breast cancer, the development of screening, educational, and motivational programs to increase the participation of women in these programs, especially in the healthcare personnel who act as health messengers and in contact with other clients; highly recommended.