ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to compare breast cancer risk calculated by the Gail model with breast cancer risk perception, and to determine the factors that affect the accuracy of women’s perceived breast cancer risk.

This was a cross sectional study conducted on 250 women between 35 and 69 years old living in Balçova, İzmir. The data were collected through a questionnaire. In the questionnaire, a question was asked about breast cancer risk level perception. Two hundred women who perceived their risk as either high or low were evaluated. The Gail model was used to access the risk of breast cancer. McNemar and Pearson’s chi-square tests were used.

Fifty-nine percent of the women perceived their breast cancer risk level correctly, while 29.5% perceived it incorrectly as higher and 11.5% perceived it incorrectly as lower. Women in the 50-59 age group, women who had higher income levels, women who had two children and women in menopause were significantly more accurate with perceiving their breast cancer risk level. The difference between the breast cancer risk level calculated by the Gail model and lifetime breast cancer risk level was significant (p<0.01). It was also found that there was no relationship between mammography screening and breast cancer risk perception.

In this study, it was found that the monthly income of the family, the women’s age, number of live births and the women who were in menopausal period affected the individual perception of breast cancer risk. The breast cancer risk perception of women was determined to be higher than the objective breast cancer risk calculated in the model.