The effects of education on breast self-examination knowledge,attitude, and practice among the female employees of Birjand University

Background and Aim: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women. Early diagnosis of breast cancer is extremely effective in its treatment. The aim of this study was to investigate the impacts of education on breast selfexamination knowledge, attitude, and practice among female employees of Birjand University, Birjand, Iran. Materials and Methods: This onegroup pretestposttest quasiexperimental study was conducted in 2012 on 89 female employees of Birjand University who agreed to participate in the study. A threepart researchermade questionnaire was used for data collection. The first part was a demographic questionnaire containing items such as age, marital status, and education, history of common breast problems, history of breast selfexamination, and history of breast cancer among firstdegree relatives. The second and the third parts were related to breast selfexamination knowledge (20 items) and attitude (ten items). An educational program was implemented for the participants by a pathologist. Educations were provided in a 90minute session through presenting a lecture, distributing phlets, showing a video clip, and using the questionandanswer method. The knowledge and the attitude questionnaires were completed by the participants both before and two months after the study intervention. The data were analyzed by using the SPSS software (v. 15.0) and through performing the Wilcoxon, the KruskalWallis, the ManWhitney U, and the McNemarrsquo s tests. P values of less than 0.05 were considered as significant. Results: Among 89 participating women, 81 (91%) were married. Participants average age was 39.2±7.3 years. Compared with the pretest readings, the means of womens breast selfexamination knowledge and attitude significantly increased after the intervention (P<0.001). Moreover, after the study, there was a significant difference among women with different educational status regarding the mean scores of knowledge and attitude. However, the differences among different age and gender groups were not significant. The pretestposttest mean differences of knowledge and attitude were also not significantly related with womens other demographic characteristics. Conclusion: Based on the findings of the present study, education can be effective in improving womens knowledge and attitude about breast cancer screening methods. Consequently, running educational programs is recommended for effective prevention and prompt treatment of breast cancer.