Health Beliefs and Behaviors Regarding Breast Self- Examination in Women Referring To Community Health Centers in Andimeshk: A study Based On Health Belief Model (HBM)

Background: Breast cancer is the most frequent one of the kind among women. Screening Method plays the main role in reducing death toll related to the disease. Then, educating women how to examine their breasts correctly is essential. This study was done to determine the Health and Behaviors in women community regarding breast self-examination in health centers in Andimeshk: A study based on Health Belief Model (HBM). Methods: This is a quasi-experimental study conducted on 70 women aged 20 to 40 years referring to two Health centers in Andimeshk in 2015. To conduct the experiment, the subjects were divided into two experimental group (n=35) and control group (n=35). The educational program was carried out in three 60-minute sessions for the experimental group through lecturing and showing movies. The instrument for gathering data were designed questionnaires based on HBM model. The questionnaires were completed by the two groups before and a month after the educational program. The data were analyzed using SPSS-16, chi-square, independent t-test, and paired t-test (α<0.05). Results: The results indicated that awareness mean scores of the experimental group increased significantly (p<0.001). The mean score of behaviors of experimental group increased from 3.4 before the instruction to 8.2 after instruction (p<0.001). Also, the mean score of the constructs of HBM model increased significantly compared with that of control group (p<0.001). Conclusion: The obtained data confirm that using an instructional model like HBM can be effective in developing correct behaviors of breast self-examination in women.

Keywords:

breast self-examination , women , health belief model (HBM)