Early Diagnosis Behavior in Turkish Women with and without a Family History of Cervical Cancer

Background: This study was planned as comparative and descriptive in order to measure and evaluatethe knowledge and attitudes regarding early diagnosis of women with and without a family history of cervicalcancer. Materials and
Methods: The study sample consisted of the relatives of female patients (N=253) who wereadmitted to Istanbul University of Medicine. Women with a family history of cervical cancer formed the casegroup, while those without family history of cervical cancer constituted the control group. Two distinct datacollection tools, a questionnaire and the Miller Behavioral Style Scale (MBSS), were used in order to obtaindata for evaluation with SPSS for Windows 20.0 statistics package program.
Results: It was found that 61.0%of the case group with family history of cervical cancer and 19.0% of the control group without family historyof cervical cancer were using early diagnostic methods. Thus the presence of an individual with cervical cancerin the family affected the attitudes towards early diagnosis. It was further found that the level of knowledge oncervical cancer and PAP smear test was higher in the case group, which was more sensitive with regard to beinginformed about cervical cancer as compared to general society. However, the average MBSS scores were notsignificantly different compared to the control group.
Conclusions: It was noted that, women participating thisstudy knowledgeable, but this did not necessarily transform into better behavior.