Effect of A Health Education Program About Breast Cancer and Breast Self Examination on the Knowledge and Practices of Females Employees

Abstract

Background:breast cancer, is the most common cancer both in developed and developing regions and it present the second most common malignancy amongst women. Aim: The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effect of a health education program about breast cancer and breast self examination on knowledge and practices of female employees in Port Said University. Subject and Methods: The quasi experimental research design was conducted on allfemale employees (no=160)from four facultiesof the Port Said university selected randomly, an educational health program about early detection of breast cancer and breast self examination was developed by researchers, the selected female is tested before and after giving the health program using a self administered questionnaire and observational checklist. Results: The findings revealed that most  of the studied sample had unsatisfactory knowledge about breast cancer (80.0%) and all of them unsatisfactorypractices (100.0%) regarding early detection of breast cancer and breast self examination in pre program, A statistically significant improvement was detected in the knowledge and practices post program (P <0.001*). Conclusion: The study concluded to the fact that the studied females employees' knowledge and practices regarding early detection of breast cancer and breast self examination are deficient, health educational programs improved their knowledge and practices, so the researchers recommend that great efforts should be done to increase the employees females' awareness of prevention and early detection of breast cancer, this can be effectively done through continues health educational programs.

Key words: Breast cancer, Breast self examination, Health education program, Female employees.