Positive effect of educating healthy women about breast cancer on their fear of breast cancer and breast cancer worry- A pre- post study Breast cancer education and fear
Abstract
Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer among females 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). We hypothesized 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 disorder. 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 by WhatsApp. Changes in scores were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.
Results: The mean age of the 104 participants was 38.37 years. Mean BCW score decreased from 7.95 ± 1.67 to 4.02 ± 1.44 (p < 0.001), and 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 may reduce BCF and BCW. We suggest that similar studies follow the participants in order to assess the effect on their health-seeking behaviour about BC in the long term.
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