Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jul 1;23(7):2361-2366.
doi: 10.31557/APJCP.2022.23.7.2361.

Evaluation of an Interventional Health Education Project: Screening of Breast Cancer and Health Education (SHE)

Meenakshi Khapre  1 , Bina Ravi  2 , Prateek Sharda  2 , Aparajita Mehta  1 , Ranjeeta Kumari  1
Affiliations

Evaluation of an Interventional Health Education Project: Screening of Breast Cancer and Health Education (SHE)

Meenakshi Khapre et al. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. .

Abstract

There is an increasing incidence of breast cancer in India, especially among younger women. The study's main objective was to create awareness related to breast cancer and breast self-examination by community health workers and assess the effectiveness of improving knowledge and practice. Secondary objective was to conduct clinical breast examination (CBE) of women and prompt referral.

Methods: An outcome evaluation of the Educational Interventional project was conducted in a hilly district of Uttarakhand. Twenty Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) were identified and trained in breast cancer awareness, the procedure of breast self-examination, and screening methods. These ASHA's further created awareness among study participants (women above 30 years). A structured questionnaire on knowledge and practice was administered before and after educational intervention by ASHA workers. Clinical Breast Examination (CBE) camps were held for women at high risk for breast cancer who were referred to the Division of Breast Surgery, AIIMS Rishikesh, for further management.

Result: One thousand sixty-one females participated in health education sessions by ASHAs. There was an improvement in knowledge and practice regarding Breast Self-examination after health education intervention. A low prevalence of risk factors for breast cancer was found among attendees of the CBE camp. 3.2% of participants had abnormalities on breast examination needing further workup.

Conclusion: In the pre-test assessment, we found a low awareness and practice regarding breast cancer which increased significantly among women after behavioral change intervention. The prevalence of risk factors for breast cancer was very low. Trained community health workers were found to be effective in raising awareness, selective screening, and prompt referral.

Keywords: Behavioral change intervention; Breast self-examination; India; breast cancer; community health workers.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

None

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Abdel Mowla H, Ahmed M, Abdel E, et al. The Effect Of Breast Self-Examination Training Program On The Knowledge, Attitude And Practice Among Female Nursing Students At Faculty Of Nursing, Alexandria University, Egypt. KJAR. 2018;3:49–5.
    1. Albrecht L, Archibald M, Arseneau D, Scott SD. Development Of A Checklist To Assess The Quality Of Reporting Of Knowledge Translation Interventions Using The Workgroup For Intervention Development And Evaluation Research (Wider) Recommendations. Implementation Sci. 2013;8:52. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Allemani C, Matsuda T, Di Carlo V, et al. Global Surveillance Of Trends In Cancer Survival 2000-14 (Concord-3): Analysis Of Individual Records For 37 513 025 Patients Diagnosed With One Of 18 Cancers From 322 Population-Based Registries In 71 Countries. Lancet. 2018;391:1023–75. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bag A, Rawat S, Pant NK, et al. Cancer Patterns In Nainital And Adjoining Districts Of Uttarakhand: A One Year Survey. J Nat Sci Biol Med. 2012;3:186–8. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Balasubramaniam SM, Rotti SB, Vivekanandam S. Risk Factors Of Female Breast Carcinoma: A Case Control Study At Puducherry. Indian J Cancer. 2013;50:65–7. - PubMed

MeSH terms