Breast Cancer Screening Knowledge and Practice Among Women in Southeast of Iran

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. the mortality rate of breast cancer canbe reduced by regular breast cancer screening program. this study was carried out to identify theknowledge and practice of women about breast cancer screening in zahedan, southeast of iran. in thiscross-sectional study, 384 women were selected as an improbability sample of women referring toqouds maternity hospital. knowledge and practice of them about breast cancer screening wereinvestigated through face-to-face interview based on a purposed questionnaire, and data were analyzedusing descriptive and analytical statistics. only 8.3% of women were aware of breast cancer screeningmethods. about breast self-examination 21.6% and about mammography 3.4% had good knowledge.overall knowledge of breast cancer screening was insufficient in 67.4%. there was statisticallysignificant relationship between knowledge of breast cancer screening and level of education, history ofindividual breast disease, and history of breast cancer in their families (p < 0.001). there wasstatistically significant and inverse relationship between knowledge of how to examine the breasts andknowledge about mammography with age (p < 0.001). practices of women in zahedan about breastcancer screening were very low. only 4.5% of women performed breast self examination, on a regularbasis, 4.1% had ever had a clinical breast examination, and %1.3 had a mammography throughout theirlife. our findings suggest that knowledge and practice about breast cancer screening was relatively poorand it needs to be improved.