Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude, and Performance of Women Referring to Kashan and Aran-O-Bidgol Comprehensive Health Centers Toward Symptoms and Risk Factors for Breast Cancer in 2020

Breast cancer (BC) is one of the most common cancers in women. Among factors reducing BC mortality, referring to health centers for early diagnosis is important. The level of knowledge, attitude, and performance of women toward BC risk factors has a major contribution in deciding to refer to a health center for early diagnosis.

The present study aimed to assess the level of knowledge, attitude, and performance of women referring to Kashan and Aran-O-Bidgol comprehensive health centers toward breast cancer risk factors.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 820 women aged 30 years and above in 2020 using a standard questionnaire, including sections of sociodemographic and existence risk factors, 20 items for women’s awareness of the signs and symptoms of BC, risk factors, and breast self-examination, 10 items for attitude measurement, and 5 items for performance measurement. Data analysis was administered by SPSS using relative frequency and Chi-square tests.

Data of 776 (94.6%) participants were included in the analysis. The majority of participants had a moderate level of knowledge (66.4%) and attitude (76.6%) towards BC. For performance, about 44% of the participants had no breast self-examination during the last year. The results showed a significant association between marital status and education level with knowledge and attitude; employment with knowledge; age and income with attitude and performance (P < 0.05).

Given the low level of knowledge, attitude, and performance of old aged and low educated women, as well as the increased risk of the disease in the elderly, it is necessary to provide educational interventions to this high-risk group.