Breast cancer prevention: knowledge, attitudes and practices among Iranian health workers in southern coastwise of the Caspian Sea in 2006: A multi center study

Since Health Workers have a professional responsibility to teach others about breast cancer screening programs, it is important to plan interventions that can increase female health care professionals’ awareness of breast cancer beliefs and behaviors. This study was conducted to examine the state of knowledge, attitudes and practices towards breast cancer prevention programs among Iranian Health Workers in Southern Coastwise of the Caspian Sea in Mazandaran Province, Iran in 2006. This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study. The samples were the Iranian Health workers, with 20 years of age and older, living in southern coastwise of the Caspian Sea in 2006. The sampling method was Multistage Random Sampling. A short structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Health workers randomly selected from urban or rural health-medical centers. 715 (79.44%) of the 900 eligible participants completed the questionnaire. The mean age of the respondents was 34.46 years (SD = 7.54) with a range of 19–59 years. 83.4% were married. 32.9% were Behvarzes, 63.8% were Health volunteer, and 3.4% were Health care. Knowledge about breast cancer prevention was acceptable in 41.3%, middle in 52%, and low in 6.7%. Almost, all participants have very positive or positive attitude related to breast cancer prevention programs. But 26.2% of the women performed breast self-examination monthly. 94.7% were interested in receiving some form of continuing education regarding cancer prevention programs especially breast cancer. Considering the role that health care workers may play in communicating health behaviors to the general public, planning education interventions for this group of females is essential.