Literacy and Breast Cancer Prevention: a Population-Based Study from Iran

The developing countries have higher mortality rates for breast cancer. A reason for this is presentation at advanced stages due to low levels of public awareness. Activities are arranged by health authorities of developing countries to increase the knowledge of women but their effectiveness has not been evaluated in detail. A multiple choice questionnaire with questions about socio-demographic profile and questions about breast cancer knowledge was designed in local language Urdu, to evaluate the knowledge of the participants before and after an audio visual educational activity in Lahore, Pakistan. Scores of 0-2, 3-5 and 6-8 were ranked as poor, fair and good, respectively. Among 146 participants these scores were achieved by 1%, 55% and 45% before activity and 0%, 16% and 84% after the activity. Overall 66% of participants increased their knowledge score. Younger age, higher education, reliance on television as source of information and being a housewife were associated with better impact of the awareness activity. For the six knowledge related questions 3%, 5%, 11%, 23%, 33% and 44% more participants gave correct answers after the activity. However 6% and 7% fewer participants answered correctly for 2 questions related to the cause and the best prevention for breast cancer. The study indicated that awareness activities are effective to increase the knowledge of women and better impact is associated with higher education and younger age of women. The component analysis showed that the questions and related presentations using medical terms have a negative impact and should not therefore be used. Analysis of activity therefore leads to identification of deficiencies which can be remedied in future.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 48%

Impact of a Breast Health Awareness Activity on the Knowledge Level of the Participants and its Association with Socio-Demographic Features

Khokher¹,

Qureshi²,

Fatima³

et al. 2015

“…In countries with high rate of illiteracy among women, lack of education can influence awareness and also breast cancer screening behavior (Okabio et al, 2006;Altunkan et al, 2008;Harirchi et al, 2012). In the present study, the level of knowledge regarding how to perform a BSE, the age to start doing BSE, the frequency of performing BSE and actually performing BSE increased with increased level of education among women.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 50%

Awareness and Practices Regarding Breast and Cervical Cancer among Turkish Women in Gazientep

Karadağ¹,

Güngörmüş²,

Sürücü³

et al. 2014

Background: Cancer is a major public health problem both in our country and worldwide due to its disease burden, fatality and tendency for increased incidence. In Turkey, breast cancer ranks first with an incidence of 41.6% and cervical cancer is the tenth most common cancer with an incidence of 4.4%. Objectives and Design: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted with 240 women aged from 15 to 65 years admitted to a gynecology-obstetrics outpatient clinic of a private hospital in Gaziantep. Study data were collected by the investigators through a 36-item questionnaire form which was generated using information gathered from similar surveys in the literature. Results: It was determined that 34.6% of women were high-school graduates, and 64.2% had a medium income level. The majority (79.2%) stated that they never performed BSE and 49.5% of them said that they did not know how to do it. Some 79.2% did not know what a Pap smear was and 73.3% had not experienced a smear test ever. Conclusions: In this study, we found that most of the women had insufficient knowledge of breast and cervical cancer, while knowledge and practices increased with the education level. Based on these findings, we suggest that there is a need for planning, implementation and assessment of health policies and healthcare services at the national and regional level and we believe that nurses working in the field of protective health services should develop educational programmes for women with a primary focus on cancer in order to increase awareness among the female population in Turkey.

“…Another two studies reported targeting socio-demographic variables were not effective for BSE practice (Parsa et al, 2008;Akhtari-Zavre et al, 2013). In contrast, other studies (Montazeri et al, 2008;Harirchi et al, 2012) reported that literacy was significantly correlated with a greater degree of knowledge about breast cancer, and literate women were significantly more likely to perform breast self examination.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 58%

Knowledge of Breast Cancer and Breast Self-Examination Practice among Iranian Women in Hamedan, Iran

Akhtari-Zavare¹,

Baghestan²,

Latiff³

et al. 2014

Background: In Iran, breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer in women and a major public health problem. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out to determine knowledge on breast cancer and breast selfexamination (BSE) practices of 384 females living in the city of Hamadan, Iran. A purposive sampling method was adopted and data were collected via face-to-face interviews based on a validated questionnaire developed for this study. Results: Among respondents 268 (69.8%) were married and 144 (37.5%) of the respondents reported having a family history of breast cancer. One hundred respondents (26.0%) claimed they practiced BSE. Level of breast cancer knowledge was significantly associated with BSE practice (p=0.000). There was no association with demographic details (p<0.05). Conclusion: The findings showed that Iranian women's knowledge regarding breast cancer and the practice of BSE is inadequate. Targeted education should be implemented to improve early detection of breast cancer.