Family health in the central district of Erzincan between 40-69 years applied to the centers women's breast cancer screenings attitudes towards and affecting factors

Aim: The aim of our study is to determine the attitudes of women in the target population towards breast cancer screening, the reasons for not having breast cancer screenings and the barriers to screening, and to determine whether informing women or reporting their personal breast cancer risk is more effective in directing women to breast cancer screenings. Material method: Our research is an experimental type study and was carried out with 300 volunteer women aged between 40-69 years who resided in the central district of Erzincan and applied to a family health center here between 01.12.2022 and 01.04.2023 and had no history of breast cancer. A questionnaire with 22 questions prepared by the researchers by scanning the literature and the ASSISTS (assessing factors affecting women's breast cancer prevention behaviors) scale were applied to the participants by face-to-face interview technique. Then, the patients were divided into 2 groups (single and double) by simple randomization, and a short briefing was given to one group with a standard text consisting of a total of 212 words, and the other group was told the percentage of lifetime risk of developing breast cancer obtained from the "modified gail risk model" only. Afterwards, the groups were compared in terms of cancer screening request. Findings: The mean age of the participants was 53.49±8.03. Considering the reasons why women do not have regular BSE (breast self-examination), CBE (clinical breast examination) and mammography screening, the most common reason was lack of information in all three groups (54.7%, 54.7% and 89%, respectively, 75). Physicians are the main source of information about breast cancer of the participants with 46% (n=138). When the ASSISTS scores of the participants are examined, ASSISTS scores are significantly higher in those who apply one of the regular breast cancer screening methods, those who are married, those who have friends with breast cancer and those who have a family as a source of information. At the end of the study, 40.5% (n=41) of the informed group and 55.8% (n=72) of the group whose risk level was told agreed to have mammography (p=0.022). In addition, the desire to have BSE, CBE and mammography scans increased significantly more in the risk reporting group than in the information group (all p<0.001). xiv Conclusion: It has been determined that the method of telling the patient the risk of developing personal breast cancer is more advantageous than the information method in terms of being a more effective method that can be applied in a shorter time. Key words: Breast Neoplasms, Breast Cancer, Mammography, Secondary Prevention, Early Diagnosis of Cancer