Assessment of the Effects of Breast Cancer Training on Women Between the Ages of 50 and 70 in Kemalpasa, Turkey

Background: In both developed and developing countries; breast cancer is the major cancer observed inwomen. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of nursing and mammographic intervention on womenwith breast cancer between the ages of 50 and 70. Materials and
Methods: A training program, which was quasiexperimentaland had a pretest-protest design, was applied in Kemalpaşa district of Izmir, between October2008 and August 2010. The target population was women between the ages of 50 and 70, who were registeredin the list of 3rd Family Medicine Unit in Izmir’s Kemalpaşa metropolis. A total of 106 women who were inconformity with the study criteria participated in the study. Research data were collected through home visitsthat included face-to-face interviews; Ministry of Health education material and video films were modified andused for the training. Data analysis was performed through 82 women who were paired at the first and thesecond phase.
Results: It was observed that although the rate of breast self examination significantly increasedafter the training (p=0.022), the rate of clinical breast examination (p=0.122) and mammographic screening(p=0.523) did not. Differences in the stages of change after training were found to be statistically significant(p<0.001) and the group showed a progression in the stages of change in general (46.3%). In women meanscores of breast cancer awareness (p<0.000), severity (p<0.000), health motivation (p<0.000) and perception ofthe benefits of mammography (p<0.000) increased significantly and mean score of perception of mammographybarriers decreased significantly (p<0.000) after the training.
Conclusions: After the training on breast cancer andmammography it was determined that nursing interventions provided positive progression of stages of changeof women, affected health beliefs positively and significantly increased BSE incidences. However, it did not havea significant effect on CBE and mammographic screening.