The relationship between women's early diagnosis of, knowledge about as well as behaviours towards breast cancer and the fear of breast cancer

Progrees İn Health Sciences, vol.12, no.2, pp.29-38, 2022 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)

ABSTRACT

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the

relationship between breast cancer early diagnosis,

knowledge and behaviors towards cancer and fear of

breast cancer in women who applied to the KETEM

Materials and Methods: It is a descriptive study. It

was carried out with 360 volunteer women who

applied to KETEM between April and September

2017. A descriptive questionnaire consisting of 33

questions and the "Breast Cancer Fear Scale" were

used. Percentage, mean, frequency, standard

deviation, chi-square, t-test and Anova test were

used to evaluate the data.

Results: While 7.5% of the women had breast self

exam, 2.8% had clinical breast examination and

9.4% had mammography. Fear of breast cancer was

high in 71.9% of women, and the relationship

between fear of breast cancer and self-examination

and early diagnosis behaviors was statistically

significant. Breast cancer fear scale mean scores

were higher in women who did breast self-exam

compared to those who did not. The relationship

between them was statistically significant. The

relationship between breast cancer early diagnosis

methods and breast cancer fear scale mean scores of

women was found to be significant.

Conclusion: Fear of breast cancer is high in women.

In order to improve the early diagnosis behaviors of

women with a high fear of breast cancer, different

training programs can be organized, the factors

causing fear can be determined, and counseling can

be given to eliminate this fear.

Keywords: Breast cancer, Cancer, Early diagnosis,

Fear of breast cancer, Woman