Comparison of Awareness Level about Breast Cancer Risk Factors, Presentations, and Screening Rules and Tools: A Cross-sectional Study on General Female Population

Background & Objective: Awareness of breast cancer risk factors, clinical presentations and screening rules and methods may encourage women to use preventive measures more commonly.  Materials & Methods: A total of ۶۹۱ women from general population were interviewed using a standardized questionnaire. Demographic data, level of awareness about risk factors, presentations and screening the breast cancer and their general perception about the treatment’s efficacy were evaluated. Results: Of the participants, ۴۵.۷% had “good” knowledge about the presentations of breast cancer while the level of awareness was “good” in ۱۹.۲% of them in field of risk factors (statistically significant difference). As only about ۱۶% of them knew that women should perform breast self-examination once a month and about ۱۵% of them were aware of the screening role of the annual clinician performed breast examination. Conclusion: Most of our participants had statistically significant lower level of knowledge about the risk factors and screening rules and tools of breast cancer than its clinical presentation.

Keywords:

Awareness , Breast cancer , Presentations , Screening , Risk factors