ABSTRACT

Objective:

To collect information about breast cancer knowledge level, information sources and breast cancer screening attendances of women residing in Moda/İstanbul, aged between 40-69 and who are also in the risk group.

Materials and Methods:

This is a population-based, cross-sectional research. Data has been collected by interviewing 1271 women aged between 40-69 years, living in Moda from a sample which was drawn randomly and staged by age groups with the width of 5. Chi-square test was applied in the research.

Results:

Of the women participating in the study 99.8% stated that they had heard/read some information about breast cancer. They stated that they had obtained most information about breast cancer from television (67.2%) and the least from the health staff (22.1% from doctors, 2.8% from nurses). Older age, as a breast cancer risk factor, was known only by only half of the women (%52.8). However, the most known risk factor (%96.5) was “having first degree relatives who were diagnosed with breast cancer.” Fiftyfour % of women had had a mammography in the last two years. It is observed that well-educated women, with a higher monthly income, social security and daily newspaper reading habits were screened with mammography more in the last two years. “The lack of knowledge on the necessity of screening” is the most stated reason among others those related to not attending a mammographic screening.

Conclusion:

In the research, it has been found that women’s general level of knowledge about breast cancer was high, but their attendance at screening programs was low. Guiding women in the risk group by providing knowledge about screening programs, such as time and frequency of screening as well as to whom it is carried out, from the most widely used information source, namely television, will increase attendance at mammographic screenings.