The realationship between female health professionals' breast cancer fears and breast cancer prevention behaviors

This study was performed to analyze the relationship between female health professionals' breast cancer fears and breast cancer prevention behaviors. Designed as a descriptive and correlational study, the research was conducted in April-June 2021 with 338 female health professionals who served as nurses, doctors, and midwives at Düzce Atatürk Public Hospital in Turkey. Research data were collected with the face-to-face interview method by using the Personal Information Form, the Breast Cancer Fear Scale, and the Scale of Factors Affecting Women's Breast Cancer Prevention Behaviors. In the evaluation of research data, the independent samples t-test, the one-way analysis of variance, and the correlation analysis were used besides percentages and means. It was found that mean scores obtained by participants from the Breast Cancer Fear Scale and the Scale of Factors Affecting Women's Breast Cancer Prevention Behaviors were respectively 26.71±7.65 and 123.36±15.49 points, and hence, participants had high levels of breast cancer fear and moderately positive breast cancer prevention behaviors. Besides, it was discerned that participants who were high school graduates, who were at reproductive age, who worked in shifts for more than 10 years, who had breast interventions, who had health problems in the breast, who had breast self-exam, who had clinical breast exam, and who had mammography exam obtained higher mean scores from the Scale of Factors Affecting Women's Breast Cancer Prevention Behaviors (p<0.05). Moreover, it was identified that there was no statistically significant relationship between participants' breast cancer fears and breast cancer prevention behaviors (r:-0.018, p>0.05). In this respect, it is recommended that in-service training programs be planned to reduce breast cancer fear and develop breast cancer prevention behaviors.