Aim: In our study we aimed to determine the perspectives of female patients who applied to the outpatient clinic regarding breast self-exam and mammography screenings, which are important for early diagnosis in breast cancer, with Champion’s Health Belief Scale.
Material and Methods: 285 female patients between the ages of 20 and 69 who applied to the Izmir Bozyaka Training and Research Hospital Family Medicine outpatient clinic between January and April 2021 were included in the study. A questionnaire containing the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Form and Champion’s Health Belief Scale were applied to the participants through face-to-face interviews. The data were
analyzed with SPSS 21.0 statistics program. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, arithmetic mean standard deviation, and
percentage were used in the analysis of the variables. Independent sample t-test and chi-square test were used in the analysis.
Results were accepted as p< 0.05 at 95% confidence interval. Results: The mean age of the participants was 42.46±13.30 years, 66.7% (n:190) were married, 21.4% (n:61) were single, 11.9% (34) were divorced or was also identified as a widow. When the medical resume and family histories of the participants were examined, a personal history of breast disease was found in 27% (n: 76), and a family history of breast cancer in 14% (n:40). Considering the participants’ Champion Health Belief Scale mean score, the lowest score was perceived as 7.68±2.48; BSE
selfefficacy was found to have the highest score of 36.16±9.27. It was observed that the risk factors of the participants affected the
mean scores obtained from the SIMO subgroups.
Conclusion: As a result of our data, it was observed that the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants, marital status, age, education level, and SIMO subgroups were affected in individuals with a history of breast disease and a family history of breast cancer. Breast cancer screening is an important issue for public health. It is important to inform outpatients about breast cancer and risk factors, to evaluate their
health beliefs about screening methods, to inform them about the parameters found to be deficient, and to ensure that they are
screened regularly
Key words: Breast cancer screenings, breast cancer risk, Health Belief Model
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