The relationship between women's early diagnosis of, knowledge about as well as behaviours towards breast cancer and the fear of breast cancer

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between breast cancer early diagnosis, knowledge and behaviors towards cancer and fear of breast cancer in women who applied to the KETEM Materials and Methods: It is a descriptive study. It was carried out with 360 volunteer women who applied to KETEM between April and September 2017. A descriptive questionnaire consisting of 33 questions and the "Breast Cancer Fear Scale" were used. Percentage, mean, frequency, standard deviation, chi-square, t-test and Anova test were used to evaluate the data. Results: While 7.5% of the women had breast self-exam, 2.8% had clinical breast examination and 9.4% had mammography. Fear of breast cancer was high in 71.9% of women, and the relationship between fear of breast cancer and self-examination and early diagnosis behaviors was statistically significant. Breast cancer fear scale mean scores were higher in women who did breast self-exam compared to those who did not. The relationship between them was statistically significant. The relationship between breast cancer early diagnosis methods and breast cancer fear scale mean scores of women was found to be significant. Conclusion: Fear of breast cancer is high in women. In order to improve the early diagnosis behaviors of women with a high fear of breast cancer, different training programs can be organized, the factors causing fear can be determined, and counseling can be given to eliminate this fear.