Abstract
BackgroundAmong all cancers, breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer and the leading cause of mortality among women in developing countries including Palestine. Community pharmacists are trusted and easily accessible healthcare providers who could be engaged in breast cancer health promotion. This study was conducted with the aim of exploring knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and barriers toward breast cancer health promotion among community pharmacists in the Palestinian territories.MethodsThis study was conducted in a cross-sectional design using a questionnaire among community pharmacists. Knowledge of community pharmacists of breast cancer was tested using a 26-item knowledge test. Attitudes and beliefs of the community pharmacists with regard to breast cancer promotion were explored using 14 items. Barrier to breast cancer health promotion were explored using 9 items.ResultsData were collected from 200 community pharmacists. The median knowledge score was 69.2 % with and IQR of 15.2 %. Of the community pharmacists, 67.5 % scored 50 % and above in the knowledge test. Multivariate logistic regression showed that community pharmacists who were female in gender were more likely to score 50 % and above in the knowledge test compared to the community pharmacists who were male in gender (OR = 4.73, 95 % CI of 2.26–9.89). The community pharmacists had positive attitudes toward breast cancer health promotion. There was a significant moderate positive correlation between knowledge and attitudes scores (Spearman’s rho = 0.37, p-value < 0.001). Lack of reimbursement, lack of enough personnel, lack of time, and fear of offending the patients were the main barriers to breast cancer health promotion (percentage of agreement > 60.0 %).ConclusionsThis study shed light on the role of community pharmacists in breast cancer health promotion. Pharmacists had good knowledge of breast cancer and positive attitudes toward promoting the health of patients with breast cancer. Further studies are still needed to determine how to integrate community pharmacists in the team of healthcare providers caring for patients with breast cancer.
Highlights
Among all cancers, breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer and the leading cause of mortality among women in developing countries including Palestine
Despite the fact that breast cancer mortality rates have declined over the past 3 decades, the number of women living with breast cancer is expected to continue growing in some regions of the world [8,9,10]
As breast cancer in Palestine is often diagnosed in late stages, breast cancer has been associated with a significant rate of mortality among Palestinian women [5, 11, 14]
Summary
Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer and the leading cause of mortality among women in developing countries including Palestine. Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer and the leading cause of mortality among women in developing countries [2,3,4,5]. As in other low- and middle-income countries, little is known on the incidence and prevalence of breast cancer in Palestine [12]. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the incidence of breast cancer was estimated at 33 per 100,000 in 2008 [13]. As breast cancer in Palestine is often diagnosed in late stages, breast cancer has been associated with a significant rate of mortality among Palestinian women [5, 11, 14]. Breast cancer mortality accounts for 12 % of all cancer mortality among the Palestinians [13]
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