Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide and the leading cause of death from canceramong women. Evidence suggests that early diagnosis and screening interventions might help to improveoutcomes. This population-based study was conducted to determine breast cancer awareness and screeningbehavior among Iranian women and to examine its association with women’s literacy. The study was carriedout in two provinces, with 1,477,045 population, located in central and eastern part of Iran. Overall, 770 womenwere studied. Of these, 482 (62.7%) were literate and 287 (37.3%) were not. The results obtained from the dataanalysis indicated that there was a significant difference between literate and illiterate women. Further analysisof the data using logistic regression showed that literacy was an important contributing factor for breast cancerprevention behavior. The findings suggest that in order to improve women’s health and breast cancer outcomesproviding equal educational opportunities for women seems necessary.
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