Breast Cancer: Current Research
Open Access

Abstract

Breast Cancer (BC) is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among women worldwide. The role of teachers in educating students plays a vital role in the promotion of healthy behavior such as Breast Cancer Screening (BCS). This study aims to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of an educational program on BCS. The highlighted outcomes include BCS knowledge and practice. A randomized controlled trial was conducted among 180 Arabic women in Malaysia. The intervention group were offered an educational program on BCS prior the intervention. The data were collected at baseline and three-months post intervention using valid and reliable Arabic questionnaires. Data analysis was performed using the SPSS software 22.0. Chi-square test and the independent sample t-test with a confidence interval of 95% and P-value less than 0.05 were conducted to assess the differences between the groups. Results demonstrated there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups regarding the respondents� characteristics and the outcome variables at baseline. Following the intervention, however, the groups demonstrated significant higher changes in Breast Self-Examination (BSE) and in Clinical Breast Examination (CBE) for the intervention group than the control group. Breast self-examination performing was reported by 81.1% of the respondents in the intervention group compared with only 25.6 % in the control group (P<0.01). More than one-third of respondents in the intervention group reported having practiced CBE (36.7%) compared with only 21.1% in the control group with a significant difference between the two groups (P=0.021). However, there was no significant difference between the two groups on Mammography (MMG) performance (P=0.756). For the knowledge of BC, there was a significant difference between the two groups (P<0.01). The intervention group displays a significant increase in the knowledge of BC after the intervention 27.55 (SD=3.03) than the control group 17.60 (SD=5.01). These results show the effectiveness of educational program in improving knowledge and practice of BCS.

Biography

Sarah completed her PhD in 2021 from Universiti Putra Malaysia. She works as a data analyst. She has published several scientific articles in high impact ISI-indexed journals. Currently, she is a reviewer in some scientific journals. Her area of expertise is engulfed around community health issues such as breast cancer, cancer screening behaviors, knowledge, awareness, health beliefs, vaccine hesitancy, educational programs, health research methodology, systematic review and meta-analysis.