Background:Breast cancer (BC) is usually diagnosed in late stages in countries with limited resources. Early detection of BC is likely to improve the outcome of the disease for women in these areas.Objective:The aim of this study was to understand the possible personal, economic, and systems barriers to BC screening in a sample of Egyptian women.Materials and Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted in family health centers representing the seven districts of Alexandria governorate, Egypt. A total of 612 women were randomly selected from the chosen centers.Results:In this sample of Egyptian women, the most frequently identified potential barriers to BC screening were the following: 81.8% would not seek care until they were ill, 77% were unwilling to have a mammogram until it was recommended by the doctor, 71.4% blamed the, lack of privacy, 69.2% thought that medical checkups were not worthwhile, and 64.6% blamed the cost of services. The study further revealed that women of lower education, women in the lower income category, women who did not do paid work, those who had poor knowledge of the risks of BC, and women with no family history of BC were more likely to perceive different screening barriers compared with their counterparts.Conclusion:Many potential personal, economic, and health system barriers were identified. Addressing these barriers by increasing the awareness of BC and dealing with the misconceptions that the women have can help the policy makers to design more culturally relevant strategies to motivate women to utilize screening services.

The present study confirms that a considerable proportion of people with T2DM have microvascular complications and/or PAD at the time of, and possibly years before diagnosis. Having shown that, it is strongly recommended to apply appropriate screening strategies for subjects with diabetes at the time of diagnosis. Finally, these results should be considered as a call for action for the health care planners and providers in our region to plan for early screening for diabetes and its complications to reduce the disease burden in our community.

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Background: Breast Cancer (BC) is the most frequently occurring cancer among Egyptian women. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of a health education program on raising the knowledge related to BC, its risk factors, and some related preventive practices among women living in an urban slum area in Alexandria. Patients and Methods: A pre-/post-test interventional study was conducted during 2009–2010 on a random sample of women aged 30–65 years (n = 486) living in a slum area in Alexandria, Egypt. 20 health education sessions were carried out to educate the women on BC risk factors and some preventive practices. Previously trained nurses educated the sampled women on breast self-examination (BSE). The women’s knowledge and opinion about BC and their practice of BSE were evaluated before and 3 months after the intervention. Results: The findings indicated a significant increase in the mean knowledge score regarding BC and the mean opinion score regarding some BC risk factors. A significant increase in the practice of BSE was observed post intervention. Conclusion: This study confirms the effectiveness of intervention programs in improving the knowledge about BC risk factors and practice of BSE even in a group of women with a low literacy rate living in a slum area.

Background: Maternal neonatal tetanus is a substantial public health problem in many developing countries. In 2017, nearly, 30,848 newborns died of neonatal tetanus; thus, high immunization coverage remains a necessity. This study aims to assess knowledge and health beliefs of reproductive-age women in Alexandria about tetanus toxoid immunization. Methods: A cross-section survey of 700 females attending health offices in Alexandria was done using an interview questionnaire to collect data regarding women's knowledge and beliefs about tetanus toxoid vaccine (TTV) and maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT). Nine health offices were selected using multi-stage random sampling. Results: Most of studied women (83.6%) had poor knowledge of MNT and TTV. The highest percentage of women had low perception of susceptibility to MNT (48.0%), moderate perception of severity of MNT (57.4%) and barriers to TTV (58.9%), high perception of benefits of TTV (86.6%), and high self-efficacy in taking the vaccine (76.2%). Less than one-third of the sampled women (27.7%) were immune by (TT2+). Logistic regression models showed that the place of antenatal care, level of knowledge, perceived barriers, and socioeconomic level were significant predictors of immunity status (p = 0.008, p = 0.032, p = 0.011, and p = 0.001, respectively). Conclusion: Women lacked information about MNT/TTV and may even have been discouraged by their private obstetricians from taking the vaccine. Perceived barriers to receiving tetanus toxoid vaccination were shown to be an important predictor of immunization behavior