Effects of Educating Healthy Women About Breast Cancer on Their Breast Cancer Fear and Worry Breast cancer education and fear
Abstract
Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer among women worldwide and prognosis depends on early diagnosis; however, women seldom seek medical attention on time. Two of the important reasons for this delay are BC worry (BCW) and fear (BCF). This study tested the hypothesis that educating healthy women about BC would reduce their BCF and BCW.
Methods: Participants were women above 18 years who visited the Breast Clinic, had a normal or benign breast assessment and were not suffering from any psychological disorders. They filled a survey including items of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Lerman BCW scale and Champion BCF scale before and after the intervention. In the course of the study, 20 short educational videos about BC were sent to them on WhatsApp. Changes in scores were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.
Results: The mean age of the 104 participants was 38.37 years. The mean BCW score decreased from 7.95 ± 1.67 to 4.02 ± 1.44 (P < 0.001), and the mean BCF score decreased from 22.29 ± 4.09 to 21.43 ± 4.99 (P = 0.046). HADS scores showed no significant change.
Conclusion: Our study showed that educating healthy women about BC reduces BCF and BCW. We suggest that similar studies follow the participants in order to assess the effect of such education on their health-seeking behavior about BC in the long-term.
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