Breast cancer preventive behaviors among Iranian women: a systematic review

Objective (s): Breast cancer screening is an important approach for early detection of the disease. Different factors such as demographic variables، awareness، literacy، social and economic conditions are effective in breast cancer screening behaviors. However، there is no formal screening program for breast cancer in Iran. This study was conducted to investigate the factors affecting breast cancer preventive behaviors among Iranian women. A systematic review of the Persian literature that published in Iranian biomedical journals was conducted using two search engines (SID and IranMedx). A combination of several key words including breast cancer، screening awareness was used to retrieve papers. In all 30 papers were included in the review. The reported awareness level had fluctuation between 14 to 73 percent. The breast self-examination by best estimate was between 1. 8 to 19. 3 percent. Annual clinical breast examination was reported to be 3 to 26 percent. The commonest factors affecting breast cancer unpreventive behaviors included: the fear of detecting the disease، unawareness of the screening plans، being too busy، lack of breast problems، forgetfulness، indifference، and lack of necessity for screening. The findings confirm that awareness of the Iranian women on breast cancer preventive behaviors is low. In addition، the use of screening methods (self-examination، clinical examination، and mammography) was also low. It seems that women awareness should become the central part of any effort in breast cancer prevention in Iran.