The effect of education for gynecological cancer on the awareness of gynecological cancer and healthy life style behavior in lesbian or bisexual women

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of training on gynecological cancers given to lesbian or bisexual women on gynecological cancer awareness and healthy lifestyle behaviors. Method: The study was was conducted in a quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test with one group. The population of the study is lesbian and bisexual women living in İzmir. The sample of the study consists of 32 lesbian or bisexual women volunteers who were informed about the training through social media accounts of Genç LGBTI+ organisation in İzmir and was reached via snowball method. Pre-training, women were administered "Introductory Information Fom", " Pretest Form", "Gynecological Cancer Awareness Scale" and " Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Scale-II". Then, participants were given a training in person on gynecological cancer prevention within the organisation in groups. Following training, in the first and the third months, "Posttest Form", "Gynecological Cancer Awareness Scale" and "Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Scale-II" were re-administered. Data collected via scale and questionnaire method were evaluated by average percentage calculations, Cochran Q test, ANOVA, t test and Mann Whitney U test, F and Pearson correlation. Findings: Average age of participating women is 25.75±5.31. While the pre-training gynecological cancer awareness levels of women were 143.25±16.40, it was determined to be 177.03±17.40 in the first month and 180.84±19.35 in the third month respectively. Healthy lifestyle behaviors level of the women pre-test was assessed to be 125.84±16.62 whereas post-training it was determined to be 141.75±22.97 and 139.44±22.14 in the first and the third month respectively. Women's awareness and healthy lifestyle behaviors has shown a statistically significant increase with female productive organ cancer prevention training. Results: The female productive organ cancer prevention training, received by lesbian and bisexual women positively affected women's gynecological cancer awareness and healthy lifestyle behaviors. Studies should be conducted to improve the health of lesbian / bisexual women.