health literacy and breast and cervical cancer screening behaviors in women

Background: breast cancer and cervical cancer, the most common forms of cancer in women worldwide,are on a fast and steady rise. cancer screening tests are an important tool to combat cancer-related morbidityand mortality. considering the importance of health literacy in promoting community health, this studyaimed to investigate the relationship between health literacy and the history of screening behaviors ofcommon cancers in women referred to bushehr healthcare centers in 2019.methods: this cross-sectional study was carried out on 380 women referred to urban health centers inbushehr in 2019. data were collected by using a questionnaire consisting of three parts: demographiccharacteristics, breast and cervical cancer screening behavior, and health literacy (helia) questionnaire.data were analyzed via spss 21 software using the chi-square test, an independent t-test, and descriptivestatistical methods. furthermore, p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.results: the mean age of the subjects was 34.88 ± 9.15 years. moreover, 3.2% of subjects had inadequatehealth literacy, 13.9% had health literacy at a border level, and 82.9% had sufficient health literacy. inthis study, 46.8% and 88.2% of the women did not undergo pap tests and mammography, respectively,and 73.9% were never referred to the health centers for clinical examination of breasts. in addition,health literacy had a significant relationship with monthly breast examination and undergoing pap smear(p < 0.001), but health literacy had no significant relationship with undergoing mammography and clinicalbreast examination (p > 0.05).conclusion: the results of this study indicated that women with higher levels of health literacy are morelikely to get in the habit of doing monthly breast self-examination and undergoing the pap test. thus, itis suggested that this result be considered in prevention programs (primary and secondary) to increasewomen’s health.