Women s awareness of the breast cancer screening behavior in Bandar Abbas

Introduction & Aim: Breast cancer is the most prevalent type of cancer that afflicts women but is controllable if diagnosed early. The present research aims to evaluate the awareness of breast cancer screening behavior among women visiting Bandar Abbas healthcare center. Methods: The present descriptive-analytic research was cross-sectional in type and was conducted in 2017 on 336 women visitors of Bandar Abbas healthcare center. The sampling method was multistratified random clustering. The data collection instrument was a reliable and valid questionnaire developed by the present researchers. Cronbach s alpha was estimated at .86. The questionnaire was comprised of two sections, a demographic information section as well as an awareness section. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data via SPSS ver19. ResultsThe age of the women participants ranged from 15 to 70. As for their marital status, 80% of them were married. In terms of education, 44.7% held an academic degree. 63.4% of the participants were housewives. The final score obtained from the awareness section ranged from low to moderate. Statistically significant correlations were found between awareness and age (p=.038) and education (p<.012). There were no statistically significant correlations between awareness, occupation and marital status. Conclusion: The present results showed that women s awareness of breast cancer screening behavior was inadequate. Therefore, it is essential to take screening methods more seriously. Interventions are required to raise women s awareness of breast cancer screening behaviors.

Keywords:

awareness , breast cancer , Bandar Abbas