Health beliefs of senior college students regarding breast cancer and breast self-examination

Abstract

Margot Stillman's Health Belief Questionnaire (1977) was used to investigate the knowledge and health beliefs about breast cancer and the practice of breast self-examination (BSE) by 59 nursing and 55 nonnursing students in a small liberal arts college. Descriptive statistics, t-test, and chi-square analyses were used. Although nursing students achieved a statistically significant higher score on the knowledge questions than nonnursing majors, no significant increase in practice of BSE was found in nursing majors. Students with higher perception of susceptibility to cancer or higher perception of benefits of BSE had no statistically significant increase in BSE. Caring for a client with breast cancer increased the frequency of BSE in the majority of nursing students.