Knowledge, Attitude and Beliefs Women Attending Mammography Units have Regarding Breast Cancer and Early Diagnosis

Objective: Breast cancer is an extremely important issue that threats women’s health; it is the most commonillness that leads to death in women, worldwide. The purpose of this descriptive-comparative study was todetermine the knowledge, attitude, and beliefs women attending mammography units have regarding breastcancer and early diagnosis.
Methods: The study population comprised 333 women visiting second and third stagemammography units for a mammography, and 1018 women visiting first stage mammography units at CancerSurveying and Training Centres. Questionnaires determining the descriptive characteristics of women, and theirattitudes towards breast cancer and early diagnosis, a knowledge evaluation form, and the Turkish version ofthe Champion’s Health Belief Model Scale was used to gather data.
Results: The rate of obtaining informationabout early diagnosis in breast cancer (88.6%), information about breast self-examination (87.6%), conductingbreast self-examination (61.8%), and undergoing a clinical breast examination (99.6%) were higher in the groupof women attending first stage mammography units in comparison to women attending other mammographyunits. The knowledge score (71.8+18.8) of women attending first stage mammography units regarding breastcancer and early diagnosis was also higher in comparison to women attending other mammography units (p=.00).Sub-scales of the breast cancer health belief model scale were high for women attending Cancer Surveying andTraining Centres, while their perception of self breast examination limitations and mammography limitationswere low.
Conclusion: Based on the effect of peer education, this study proves that women attending first stagemammography unit have a higher level of knowledge about breast cancer and early diagnosis, and more positivehealth beliefs regarding breast cancer and screenings in comparison to women attending other mammographyunits.