Beliefs and Behaviors of Breast Cancer Screening in Women Referring to Health Care Centers in Northwest Iran According to the Champion Health Belief Model Scale

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. All ages are susceptible and more than90% of the patients can be cured with early diagnosis. Breast self-examination (BSE) and mammography can beuseful for this aim. In this study we examined the components of the Champion health belief model to identifyif they could predict the intentions of women to perform such screening. Materials and Methods: A total of380 women aged 30 and above who had referred to health-care centers were assessed for use of breast cancerscreening over the past year with a modified health belief model questionnaire. Logistic regression was appliedto identify leading independent predictors. Results: In this study 27% of the women performed BSE in thelast year but only 6.8% of them used mammography as a way of screening. There were significant differencesregarding all components of the model except for perceived severity between women that underwent BSE. overthe past year and those that did not. Findings were similar for mammography. Regression analysis revealedthat intentions to perform BSE were predicted by perceived self-efficacy and perceived barriers to BSE whileintentions to perform mammography were predicted by perceived barriers. Conclusions: This study indicatedthat self-efficacy can support performance of BSE while perceived barriers are important for not performingboth BSE and mammography. Thus we must educate women to increase their self-efficacy and decrease theirperceived barriers.