The effect of health promotion program on female breast self-examination knowledge and practice

Abstract

Background Breast self-examination (BSE) is a screening method that should be taught at early ages to make women aware about the importance of early detection of breast cancer. It can be performed without the assistance of health professionals after effective education and requires no special equipment. Aim The aim was to evaluate the effect of a health promotion program on female BSE knowledge and practice. Participants and methods A quasi-experimental pretest/post-test was used to implement the current study, at the surgical outpatient departments affiliated to Suez Canal University Hospitals and Beni-Suef University Hospitals, on a convenience sample of 80 women from September 2017 to December 2017. Two tools were used for data collection: A structured interview questionnaire to evaluate the participants’ sociodemographic data, BSE knowledge, barriers to practice BSE, and an observational checklist to assess the BSE practice among the studied female. Results There was a high significant relationship between sociodemographic variables and women’s knowledge and practice on BSE with an increase in their scores after implementation of the health promotion program. Conclusion and recommendations This study concluded that the designed health promotion program could improve BSE among the studied women. The current study recommended implementing health promotion programs and educational instructions to provide more information based on scientific knowledge about BSE to female patients at the hospitals.