Abstract
BackgroundBreast cancer is the most common cancer and the second principal cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide as well as in Malaysia. Breast self-examination (BSE) has a role in raising breast cancer awareness among women and educational programs play an important role in breast cancer preventive behavior. The aim of this study is to develop, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of Breast Health Awareness program based on health belief model on knowledge of breast cancer and breast-selfexamination and BSE practice among female students in Malaysia.MethodsA single-blind randomized controlled trial was carried out among 370 female undergraduate students from January 2011 to April 2012 in two selected public universities in Malaysia. Participants were randomized to either the intervention group or the control group. The educational program was delivered to the intervention group. The outcome measures were assessed at baseline, 6, and 12 months after implementing the health educational program. Chi-square, independent samples t-test and two-way repeated measures ANOVA (GLM) were conducted in the course of the data analyses.ResultsMean scores of knowledge on breast cancer (p<0.003), knowledge on breast self examination (p<0.001), benefits of BSE (p<0.00), barrier of BSE (0.01) and confidence of BSE practice (p<0.00) in the intervention group had significant differences in comparison with those of the control group 6 and 12 months after the intervention. Also, among those who never practiced BSE at baseline, frequency of BSE practice increased 6 and 12 months after the intervention (p<0.05).ConclusionThe Breast Health Awareness program based on health the belief model had a positive effect on knowledge of breast cancer and breast self-examination and practice of BSE among females in Malaysia.Trial registrationThe ANZCTR clinical trial registry (ACTRN12616000831482), retrospectively registered on Jun 23, 2016 in ANZCTR.org.au.
Highlights
Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second principal cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide as well as in Malaysia
We found that in the intervention group, significant changes were seen from the baseline to 6 and 12 months after the intervention in the benefits of Breast self-examination (BSE), barriers of BSE, confidence of BSE and total health belief model score compared to the control group
Based on the Health Belief Model (HBM), this study assessed the effect of breast health education intervention on BSE practice, knowledge of breast cancer and BSE as well as health beliefs of female undergraduate students in the Klang Valley, Malaysia
Summary
Akhtari-Zavare et al BMC Public Health (2016) 16:738 on the results of another studies, low percentages of clinical breast examination (23.3 %), breast selfexamination (19.6 %), and intention to perform breast self-examination (18.5 %) were observed among Malaysian women [7,8,9]. Such results clearly show the need for awareness campaigns that raise the knowledge of young women about breast cancer and the need for the involvement of social media in promoting public breast health [6,7,8,9]
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