The Survey on Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) about breast Cancer and its Prevention in Yasuj Women who Refer to Health Care Centers

Purpose: To determine the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) concerning breast cancer and its prevention of Yasuj women who were referred to health care centers. Design: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, investigators selected 97 women by stratified random sampling method, and this sample size was calculated using the assumption of Z= 95%, P= 50%, q= 50%, e= 0.1. Data was collected through questionnaires that included demographic information, 6 multiple choice questions and 9 true-false questions to assess the degree of knowledge about breast cancer and its prevention methods, the number of breast self-examinations and women's attitudes of the best resource for education about breast cancer and its preventative methods. Finally, gathered data was analyzed by T-test, one way ANOVA, Tukey procedure and correlation coefficient with use of SPSS software. Results: Findings showed that research subjects had a mean age of 26 years, were mostly married (81%) and more elementary education (30.5%). In this research, the mean degree of knowledge of breast cancer and its prevention methods was 9.845 out of 20 and the most of the women (53.6%) had little knowledge. Although results showed that 96.7% of women didn't accomplish breast self-examination, 94.8% of them had positive attitudes to education about breast cancer and its prevention strategies, especially breast self-examination. Also, 67% of research subjects expressed that the best thing health care workers can do is to educate individuals about breast cancer and its prevention methods. In this study, there was no significant correlation between age and marital status and the degree of knowledge, but one way ANOVA and Tukey procedures showed that the mean knowledge score in was significantly higher in people with academic education than others (P<0.05). Also, T-test showed that people with high levels of education carry out breast self-examinations and other prevention strategies more than others (P<0.0001). Conclusion: Researchers emphasize the importance of the role of health care workers in education about breast cancer and its prevention strategies, especially concerning monthly breast self-examination as one of the necessary programs in health education. This will lead to the increase in women's quality of life and health promotion.

Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, Breast Cancer, Prevention, Yasuj