The relationship between women's breast cancer fear and fatalism perceptions and breast cancer early diagnosis behaviors

Aim: The aim of this study is to determine the effects of women's fear levels and fatalism perceptions regarding breast cancer on early diagnosis behaviors of breast cancer and the relationship between these variables. Material and Method: The descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with 433 women registered in Family Health Centers between November 1, 2024 and February 28, 2025. The "Personal Information Form", "Breast Cancer Fear Scale" and "Breast Cancer Fatalism Scale" were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics, normality tests, t-test in independent samples, analysis of variance (ANOVA), posthoc (Tukey, LSD), Pearson correlation and linear regression tests were used in the analysis of data. Results: 52.4% of women stated that they had performed Breast Self-Examination, 25.4% had Clinical Breast Examination and 26.2% of women over 40 years of age had mammography. Age, education level, marital status, occupation, having children and desire to receive information about breast cancer had a statistically significant effect on the perception of fatalism (p<0.05). It was determined that occupation, having children and desire to receive information about breast cancer significantly affected the fear variable (p<0.05). Performing Breast Self-Examination, having Clinical Breast Examination and having mammography did not significantly affect the fatalism and fear scores (p>0.05). According to the regression analysis results, the effects of the fatalism variable (B=0.308, p=0.036) and desire to receive information about breast cancer (B=3.343, p<0.001) on the fear of breast cancer were found to be significant. Conclusion: As a result of these results, it is very important to develop various strategies for managing fear and fatalism perceptions in education programs in order to increase participation in early diagnosis and screening of breast cancer. Key Words: Early diagnosis behaviours, breast cancer, women, perception of fatalism, fear