Breast Cancer Screening Behavior Among Nurses in Kerman Teaching Hospitals and Its Relationship with the Health Beliefs Model Scales

Breast cancer is among common cancers in women. Early diagnosis affects the prognosis of this disease. This study was performed to investigate methods of breast cancer screening among nurses and to find its relationship with the components of the Champion Health Belief Model. In this analytical cross-sectional study, 209 nurses from Kerman educational hospitals were evaluated in 2015. The instrument used was the Persian version of the standardized Champion Health Belief Model Scale (CHBMS). Data were analyzed using the independent t-test on SPSS17 software package. The Mean age of participants was 35.6±8.01 years. The rates of regular breast self-examination, history of breast clinical examination, and history of mammography were 9.3%, 24.6% and 12.8%, respectively. Perceived seriousness was higher in married than in single subjects. Self- efficacy, perceived benefit, and perceived barriers significantly affected doing breast self-examination. Perceived susceptibility and self-efficacy affected visiting a physician for breast physical examination, and perceived barriers had a significant effect on doing mammography. The present study showed a low rate of breast cancer screening in nurses and considering the relationship of these beliefs with self-efficacy and perceived barriers, it is recommended that training programs focus more on these two aspects