Breast Cancer Screening Barriers among Women in Nablus Governorate

 

 ˡ Mariam Al-Tell  ,  2 Dina Zayed Younes

ˡ   Faculty of medicine and health science, An Najah National university [email protected]

 

 

 Abstract

 

Introduction: Breast cancer is still one of the major health problems not only in Palestine but also all over the world.  Knowing the breast cancer screening barriers that prevent women from performing breast cancer early screening can increase the chance of early detection and this can be minimize the occurrence of disease and related deaths.

The main objective was to assess the barriers that prevent women from performing breast cancer screening tests.

  A convenient sample method   was used    to select 269 women aged from 30-60 years old from women’s   social centers from Nablus city,  Beit Furik, Beita and  Askar refugee camp.    Self-administrated questionnaire was used to collect the data which was analyzed   using SPSS.

Results: The percentage of the participants who knew mammogram, CBE and BSE tests was (59.5%), (47.6%) and (67.3%) respectively.  The percentages of participants who did not perform mammogram and CBE tests were (60.2%) and (74.0%) respectively.

The most common barriers that prevented women from performing breast cancer screening tests were “fear of suffering cancer pains” and “changing physical appearance”, “financial cost”, “afraid of having cancer”, “shy of applying the tests” and “test may cause pain”. Also, there were a significant relationships between mammogram barriers and place of residency (P values .046), between BSE and educational status (P values .021), between the age and geographical and financial barriers (p value.012), (p value.001) respectively, and between the educational status and geographical and financial barriers (p value.002), (p value.001) respectively.

Recommendation: increase women’s knowledge about breast cancer screening tests, and to have a female physician in every clinic.

Key wards:   breast cancer,   screening tests, breast self exam, mammography

Conference Title

Sixth PFMR Symposium, Bethlehem University

Conference Country

Palestine

Conference Date

April 9, 2016 - April 9, 2016

Conference Sponsor

not sure