Effect of A Health Education Program about Breast Cancer and Breast Self Examination on the Knowledge and Practices of Females Employees

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer, is the most common cancer both in developed and developingregions and it present the second most common malignancy amongst women. Aim: The aim ofthe present study is to evaluate the effect of a health education program about breast cancer andbreast self examination on knowledge and practices of female employees in Port Said University.Subject and Methods: The quasi experimental research design was conducted on all femaleemployees (no=160)from four faculties of the Port Said university selected randomly, aneducational health program about early detection of breast cancer and breast self examination wasdeveloped by researchers, the selected female is tested before and after giving the health programusing a self administered questionnaire and observational checklist. Results:The findingsrevealed that most of the studied sample had unsatisfactory knowledgeabout breastcancer(80.0%) and all of them unsatisfactory practices (100.0%) regarding early detection ofbreast cancer and breast self examination in pre program, A statistically significant improvementwas detected in the knowledge and practices post program (P <0.001*). Conclusion: The studyconcluded to the fact that the studied females employees' knowledge and practices regarding earlydetection of breast cancer and breast self examination are deficient, health educational programsimproved their knowledge and practices, so the researchers recommend that great efforts shouldbe done to increase the employees females' awareness of prevention and early detection of breastcancer, this can be effectively done through continues health educational programs.