Predictors of Knowledge Level and Awareness towards Breast Cancer among Turkish Females

Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the most-common malignancy of women worldwide. Though there aredifferences among developed and developing countries, BC remains the most common cancer type of women inTurkey.
Objective: This study aimed to identify the level of knowledge, awareness, and their potential predictorstowards BC in Ankara, Turkey. Materials and
Methods: The present descriptive study was conducted on 376females attending a breast health outpatient clinic. A self-administered questionnaire was designed to evaluateknowledge level about BC and predictors effecting its level. Data analysis was performed using the chi-squaretest. A value of p<0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: Mean age of the participants was 46.2±9.93(22-75). The majority (92.6 %) were married; 41.5% were educated less than nine years. Most of the womenwere housewives (82.7%) and, were living in an urban region (86.4%). Predictors of effecting responses to sevenknowledge and awareness questions about BC varied from demographic features including older age groups,higher educational levels, being married, living in an urban area, being employee, smoking, having greaterBMI to additional attributes associated breast health such as the increased number of births, applying for thepurpose of control, positive family history of breast diseases, any diagnoses of breast diseases and performingBSE practice.
Conclusions: It was determined that females in Turkey have better knowledge of BC than otherdeveloping countries even though it is not at the desired level. These findings revealed that females should bemore informed about BC risk factors, prognosis and treatments by primary health-care providers to counteractthe ascending burden of this disease.