Effect of health education on breast and cervical cancer awareness among women in East Delhi: Pre-post intervention study

SUMMARY OF PROTOCOL

STUDY TITLE:EFFECT OF HEALTH EDUCATION ON BREAST AND CERVICAL CANCERAWARENESS AMONG WOMEN IN EAST DELHI: PRE-POST INTERVENTION****STUDY.

RATIONALE:

Cancer is a major cause of mortality globally, presenting an increasingly significant challenge to global health. Breast and cervical cancer are emerging as the leading cancers among women in India. Despite the potential for effective treatment with early diagnosis, awareness among Indian women is lacking, leading to delayed detection. Health education is key to improving awareness and promoting early screening. Despite the critical need, studies on health education interventions targeting breast and cervical cancer awareness and screening practices in India remain scarce, particularly within the context of Delhi. Therefore, the present study aims to fill this research gap by assessing the impact of a health education intervention on awareness of breast and cervical cancer among women.

AIM:

To assess the effect of a health education intervention on awareness about breast and cervical cancer among women.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:

To assess the effect of a health education intervention on awareness and knowledge about breast and cervical cancer among women in East Delhi.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVE:

To assess the effect of a health education intervention on screening uptake for breast and cervical cancer among the women in East Delhi.

STUDY SETTING:

The study shall be conducted in Tahirpur which consists of Tahirpur Village and Tahirpur Sarai, Delhi. Tahirpur is the field practice area for the Department of Community Medicine, UCMS & GTB Hospital, Delhi.

STUDY DESIGN:

A community-based, pre-post intervention study.

STUDY DURATION:

April 2024 to August 2025.

STUDY PARTICIPANTS:

Women aged between 30-65 years residing in Tahirpur, Delhi.

SAMPLE SIZE:

A total of 70 women will be recruited for the study.

METHODOLOGY:

A pre-post intervention study will be conducted among women selected using a two-stage systematic random sampling method. They will be interviewed using a self-prepared, semi-structured, pre-tested questionnaire. A health education-based intervention developed to educate women in groups will be implemented. After three months of health education, an end-line survey will be conducted using the same questionnaire to assess the effect of the intervention.

STUDY TOOL:

1. A self-prepared, semi-structured, pre-tested, interviewer administered questionnaire will be used which has been adapted from the Breast Module of the Cancer Awareness Measure (Breast-CAM) and the Cervical Cancer Awareness Measure (Cervical CAM). The questionnaire comprises sections on socio-demographic data, warning signs, risk factors, knowledge, and screening behavior for both breast and cervical cancer.

2. The educational materials regarding the signs, symptoms, risk factors, and screening methods for breast and cervical cancer sourced from the module for the Multipurpose Workers (MPWs)- Female/Male on Prevention, Screening and Control of common Non-Communicable Diseases will be utilized.

PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES:

The proportion of women aware about any symptom of:

1. Breast cancer at pre and post intervention.

2. Cervical cancer at pre and post intervention.

SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES:

The proportion of women willing to undergo screening of breast and cervical cancer.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The data collected will be entered into MS Excel spreadsheet and it will be analyzed using IBM-SPSS software V20.0. Findings of the study will be described in terms of proportions for categorical variables and mean, median and standard deviation and inter-quartile range, respectively for continuous variables. Appropriate statistical tests of significance like McNemar’s test will be used to test the significance of the change in proportion. The p-value of less than 0.05 will be considered statistically significant.