Determination of health beliefs of university students towards breast and testicular cancer

AIM: This descriptive study was conducted to determine the health beliefs of university students about breast and testicular cancer and to raise awareness about this issue. METHODS: The research consisted of 2500 students who studied in the preparatory class of Ege University Foreign Languages Department from 1 October to 30 November 2018 and who studied in the preparatory classes of undergraduate degree only, and the sample consisted of 350 students. The data were collected by using the 20-item individual identification form prepared by the researcher in accordance with the literatüre, the Health Belief Model Scale for Champion's Breast Cancer and screening and the Health Belief Model Scale for Champion's Testicular Cancer screening. SPSS 20 package program was used for data analysis. Percentage, mean, spearmans rho test and chi-square test were used to evaluate the results. RESULTS: The mean age of the female students was 18.71±1.52 and the mean age of male students was 19.39 ± 1.84. Of the students, %9.5 of the female students had prior education about breast cancer, %90.5 had not received any prior education, % 67.0 had heard of BSE before, %33.0 had not heard of BSE before, %8.5 did BSE regularly, %91.5 did not perform BSE on a regular basis, %58.5 had heard of CBE before, %41.5 had not heard of it before, %3.5 had CBE, %90.0 of the students had heard of early diagnosis methods, %10.0 reported that they had not heard of early diagnosis methods. %8.8 of male students had prior training about testicular cancer, %91.2 had no prior education, %23.5 had heard of TSE before, %76.5 had not heard of TSE before, %2.9 had TSE regularly, %97.1 did not regularly perform CTE, %34.7 had heard of CTE before, %65.3 had not heard before, only %1.2 had a clinical testicular examination, %66.5 said they had heard of early diagnosis methods, %33.5 reported that they had not heard of early diagnosis methods. When correlation analysis was performed in female students; according to HBS, a high level correlation was found between sensitivity and importance / severity, health motivation and BSE benefits, mammography benefits and BSE benefits, BSE barriers and mammography barriers scale subscales. Male students were found to have a high level of correlation in terms of sensitivity, benefit of TSE and TSE barriers. In female and male students, the status of being diagnosed with cancer in the family and prior education about breast / testicular cancer affect the sensitivity. CONCLUSION: It was determined that most of the university students don't have knowledge about breast and testicular cancer and BSE / TSE and also do not apply BSE / TSE regularly. According to the results of the study; in future studies, it is recommended to plan and implement health education programs in order to increase the level of knowledge about breast / testicular cancer and BSE / TSE in university students.