Barriers to Breast Cancer Screening among Palestinian Women in Nablus Region, Northern West Bank

Abstract

Breast cancer incidence in Palestinian Occupied Territories is less than western countries but it is the leading cause of cancer mortality among women. The Performance of breast cancer screening leads to early detection and reduction of mortality. Hence it is important to understand the barriers to breast cancer screening. A cross-sectional study that used a random sampling method recruited women from four women centers in Nablus district in West Bank including 127 women from Na-blus city, 133 women from villages and 40 women from the refugee camps. A questionnaire was distributed to collect data on breast cancer screening performance attitudes including knowledge and barriers in addition to demographic variables. Data included information on breast self-examination (BSE), clinical breast examination (CBE) and mammogram. The results of the study indicated that a low number performed breast screening with 60.2% never did CBE and 74% never did a mammogram. Only 67.3% of women knew about (BSE), 47.6% women knew about (CBE) and 59.5% knew about a mammogram. Fear from many aspects related to disease and its conse-quences on an individual, relationship to partner and family represented the major barrier. Also, the financial situation was an obstacle, whereas religion as a barrier was present in 50% of participants. Time and financial were the main reasons behind the application of the study only in the Nablus district. The study concluded that there is a low performance of breast screening among Palestinian women that is associated mainly with fear of disease consequences.