SS Mazloomy Mahmoodabad - Professor, department of disease control, Health School, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Science, Yazd, Iran. Social Determinants of Health (SDH) Research Center, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, IRAN.
M khodayarian - Instructor, Ph.D student in Health Education & Health Promotion, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Science, Yazd, Iran.

Introduction:Breast cancer is one of the most important and prevalent diseases in women and it is necessary for every women to know the essential information in this context. By use of screening in healthy women population, it can explore abnormal changes by performing test and examination. The present study was done by the purpose of determining awareness and attitude of women about breast cancer screening behavior in Yazd city, Iran.Methods:This study was descriptive-analytical design which the awareness and attitude of 480 women who were referring to the one o the health clinics and were selected by convenience sampling was assessed. A researcher-made questionnaire was used including 4 sections: demographic (n=4), history of breast diseases (n=4), questions for measuring awareness (n=24), and attitude (n=42). The reliability was measured by calculating Cronbach s Alfa coefficient (r=0.86) and it s face and content validity by health education professors. Data analysis was performed by SPSS software.Results:The women s age range was 24-59 years. 78% were married, 29.7% had academic education. The most important resources for acquisition of health information were in respectively health professionals, mass media, medical resources, close friends and relatives, and physician. The acquired grade of awareness section questions were placed in poor to moderate categories. 64.8% of women had negative attitude. The women with lower awareness level had more negative attitude (P<0.001). It is observed the significant relationship between educational level and age with awareness, also there was statistics significant relationship (P<0.05).Conclusion:The most important perceived barriers of breast-self examination were not being believe in screening, fear of finding a mass, husband opposition, forgetting the time of examination, and breast pain . Thus, enhancing the awareness level and reforming the Iranian s women as active members of the society is necessary because their health can give guarantee to the family and also is considered one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

awareness, attitude, women, screening behavior, breast cancer