The Effect of Education on the Early Diagnosis of Breast and Cervix Cancer on the Women's Attitudes and Behaviors Regarding Participating in Screening Programs

Abstract

The objective of this paper was to define the effect of education on the early diagnosis of breast and cervix cancer on the women's attitudes and behaviors regarding participating in Cancer Early Diagnosis, Screening and Training Centers-CEDSTC screening programs. This semi-experimental study was completed with 342 women. The data were collected with forms "Champion's Health Belief Model Scale Breast Cancer-HBMSBC" and "Health Belief Model Scale for Cervical Cancer and the Pap Smear Test-HBMSCCPST." When the women's health beliefs before and after 6 months of the education about the early diagnosis of breast and cervical cancers are considered, it is seen that the HBMSBC subscales health motivation, breast self-examination (BSE), and evasion to mammography (MMG) decreased and BSE self-efficacy and MMG benefit attitudes increased and HBMSCCPST subscales pap smear benefit attitudes increased and evasion to pap smear attitude decreased (p < 0.05). Six months after the education, 28.4% of the women had undergone MMG, 69.9% had performed BSE, and 33.6% had undergone a pap smear test. Education regarding early diagnosis of breast and cervix cancer was found to have positive effects on the health behaviors of the women related to BSE, MMG, and pap smear tests. The women require professional education program for increasing their attitudes and behaviors for CEDSTC screening programs. We suggest regularly providing education to increase participation in early screening programs.

Keywords: Attitude; Breast cancer; Cervical cancer; Education; Rural population.