Abstract

Background/aim:  Breast cancer affects women's lives all over the world, yet early detection is an effective strategy for reducing mortality. The participation of women in Mammography screening is linked to their knowledge, attitudes, and perceived barriers. Objective : Our study aims to assess Mammography screening uptake and barriers among women attending Primary Healthcare centress (PHCs) in North Palestine. Methodology: We used a cross-sectional study design to determine Mammography screening uptake, knowledge, and barriers among 357 women attending PHCs in North Palestine from December 2018 to March 2019 using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Results: The mean age was 50 years. The majority (69.2%) were considered to have adequate knowledge about breast cancer and Mammography screening, and Mammography screening uptake among the participants was (37%).

Almost 85% of the women have positive attitude toward breastfeeding as a prophylaxis factor against breast cancer  and the most frequent barrier to Mammography screening was that the participants believed they didn't have any symptoms (28.6%), followed by 22.1% of them who didn't want to know whether they had breast cancer. Conclusion: The findings of this study highlighted the low Mammography uptake among Palestinian women despite the adequate knowledge for those women and the fully accessible and free screening program. Interventional strategies should be implemented at several levels to enhance Mammogram uptake.

keywords:  , Screening uptake, Mammography, Breast screening , Barriers , Breast cancer

Title

European Journal of General Practice

Publisher

Taylor and Francis online

Publisher Country

United States of America

Publication Type

Online only

Volume

2720211

Year

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Pages

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