Raising the Breast Health Awareness amongst Women in an Urban Slum Area in Alexandria, Egypt

Abstract

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.

The Effectiveness of a Community-Based Breast Cancer Education Intervention in the New York State Capital Region

“…Our results concur with findings of other educational interventions conducted within the US, including those in Northern[28] and Southern[29] California, Florida[30], Massachusetts and Georgia[19], NYC and Arkansas[9], Texas[6, 31], and North Carolina[32] as well as international studies[5, 10, 12]. Our educational tools consisted of Power Point presentations delivered in lectures catered to each participating group.…”

“…Our educational tools consisted of Power Point presentations delivered in lectures catered to each participating group. Previous studies utilized a variety of interventions including presentations, seminars or workshops[5, 6, 9, 10, 28], focused discussion groups[30], video breast health kits[19], and culturally targeted booklets[6, 12, 29, 31, 32]. …”

“…For example, stratified analysis by prior education revealed that while individuals without a prior college or graduate degree among both groups of participants had lower baseline knowledge, our education was effective in increasing knowledge and narrowing the range of percent correct answers across all educational levels. Interestingly, two international studies, conducted in an urban slum in Egypt[10] and rural Turkey[5], both found that education interventions dramatically improved participants’ breast cancer knowledge even among illiterate women with low levels of baseline information on breast cancer.…”

Effect of a Breast-Self Examination (BSE) Educational Intervention among Female University Students

“…However, the posttest of the present study demonstrated significant improvements in students' performance of BSE, which is certainly attributed to the practical part of the program. The effectiveness of the program in improving the practice of BSE is in agreement with a number of studies from several countries as in China (Ouyang and Hu, 2014), Ghana (Mena et al, 2014), the United States (Zeinomar and Moslehi, 2013) as well as in Alexandria, Egypt (Kharboush et al, 2011). …”

The application of Urban Health Equity Assessment and Response Tool to assess health inequity among dwellers of an urban slum area in Giza Governorate, Egypt

“…Operational definition used by municipal authorities to define slum is 'Residential areas characterized by being developed in contradiction to planning and building laws and regulations in the absence of state's supervision [3] . The research studies in Egypt for health assessment of slum dwellings are scares: some are related to child health [4] , whereas others are related to maternal health [5,6] . Most urban residents in sub-Saharan Africa live in slums often characterized by a lack of basic services such as water and sewerage.…”