ABSTRACT

This study aims to investigate awareness of breast cancer and methods of early diagnosis in women in a region where a community based breast cancer screening has been conducted by Giresun KETEM, compared to the awareness of women in a region where no screening has been conducted.

This is a cross-sectional study conducted on a total of 270 samples, composed of 139 women who registered at Teyyareduzu Health Clinic on whom screening was performed, and 131 women registered at Bulancak Health Clinic, on whom no screening was done

In the region where the screening was done, 54.7% of women reported that breast cancer is preventable, 55.9% stated that they performed a BSE, 62.5% recorded that consanguinity increased the risk of breast cancer and 52.8% reported that breastfeeding reduced the risk of breast cancer p<0.05) Although, on average, 5.43% of those screened were aware of the symptoms of breast cancer, an average of only 2.84% of the women who had not been screened knew the symptoms. Among the methods of early diagnosis, the rate of knowing about the following three, namely, BSE, PE and mammography, was 33% in the screened region and 24% in the non-screened region.

It was determined that both the knowledge and awareness level of these women was higher than in the region where screening was not done. Community-based organized screenings are effective in developing the knowledge and skills of women about the symptoms of breast cancer, risk factors and early diagnostic methods such as BSE, PE and mammography.