Determining the awareness of and compliance with breast cancer screening among Turkish residential women.

BACKGROUND Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women. Despite being associated with high morbidity and mortality, breast cancer is a disease that can be diagnosed and treated early. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this cross-sectional study of 321 women, data were collected by Questionnaire, Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Form and Champion's Health Belief Model Scale. Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, Chi- squared tests and logistic regression were used in the statistical analysis. RESULTS It was found that only 2.2% of women have high and very high risk levels of breast cancer risk. There is a positive correlation between early diagnosis techniques and Health Belief Model Sub-Dimension scores which are sensibility, health motivation, BSE (Breast self-examination) self-efficient perception and negative correlation between mammography barrier score and BSE barrier score (p 0.05). When factors for not having BSE were examined, it was determined that the women who do not have information about breast cancer and the women who smoke have a higher risk of not having BSE. CONCLUSIONS It is important to determine health beliefs and breast cancer risk levels of women to increase the frequency of early diagnosis. Women's health beliefs are thought to be a good guide for planning health education programs for nurses working in this area.