Health Beliefs and Breast Cancer Early Detection Behaviors Among Health Care Providers In Tabriz Healthcare Centers, Iran.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among females that will cause death ifit does not be recognized and cured. One out of eight Iranian women in 40-55years old is likely to develop breast cancer. Early detection of breast cancerby screening programs is a useful approach in controlling the disease. In this descriptive study, 196 female healthcare providers were selected from52 Tabriz health centers by proportional cluster random sampling and theirhealth beliefs about breast cancer early detection behaviors are assessed byusing Champion’s Health Belief Model (CHBM) questionnaire. Data analyzed bySPSS software.The mean age of participants was 37.01 (S.D= ± 7.54), and 73.5% of them weremarried and the job of 45.6% were midwife. 73.2% of participants have performedBSE, but only 26.9% of them performed it regularly. 26.6% of them had mammogramand 10.7% reported performance of CBE. The BSE performance was higher amongnurses and midwifes. BSE and mammography performance were higher in marriedhealth workers. Health workers who performed mammography and CBE were older(P> 0.05).In spite of good knowledge of healthcare providers in compare with otherpeople; the results of this study showed that the rate of BSE, mammography andCBE performance is low in Tabriz healthcare providers. So providing educationalprograms with focus on performance of breast cancer early detection behaviorsis strongly recommended by health service policy makers.Keywords:health beliefs, breast cancer, early detection behaviors, female health careproviders.