The Effect of Breast Cancer Screening Training Given to Municipal Women on Health Literacy, Breast Cancer Screening Beliefs and Behaviors

Breast cancer is a disease that occurs with the uncontrolled proliferation of cells surrounding the milk glands and ducts in the breast. According to the 2020 data of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Global Cancer Obsevartory (GLOBOCAN); The most common type of cancer among women worldwide is breast cancer. At the same time, breast cancer ranks second among deaths of known cause (IARCH, 2020). Similarly, according to 2019 data from the Health Statistics Yearbook, breast cancer ranks first among the most common cancer types among women in Turkey, and ranks second among deaths of known cause.

Early diagnosis in breast cancer is of great importance in increasing the survival rate and increasing the success of treatment. The fact that risk factors are effective in 20% of breast cancer cases and that most of these factors are unchangeable risk factors increases the importance of early diagnosis. Thanks to breast cancer screening methods, it is the first priority to catch breast cancer at an early stage before the clinical signs of breast cancer manifest itself and to reduce mortality rates. Early detection screenings such as Breast Self Examination (BSE), Clinical Breast Examination (CBE), and mammography are thought to be a way to increase early detection and decrease mortality rates.. According to the Turkish National Breast Cancer screening criteria, women older than 20 should periodically perform BSE every month; It is stated that women in the 20-40 age group should have CBE once every two years and women in the 40-69 age group should have CBE once a year. It is also recommended that all women between the ages of 40-69 have a mammogram every two years.

In detecting cancer at an early stage, it is extremely important to have information about the symptoms of cancer and to transform this information into behavior and observe in terms of symptoms. It is suggested that preventive behaviors such as a healthy lifestyle and health screening are beneficial methods in the prevention of breast cancer. In the literature, it has been determined that the knowledge level of women about cancer is not sufficient and they do not participate in breast cancer screening programs at the desired level and periodically.

Studies have also reported that women's attitudes towards breast cancer prevention behaviors and their level of knowledge are related to health literacy. Health literacy is extremely important for the health and health services of the general population because of its consequences that affect individuals and public health. Health literacy level, which is one of the factors that shape women's health, is effective in improving and managing women's health, and understanding and using the necessary information about women's health also increases the behavior of providing early diagnosis against diseases.. A high level of health literacy plays an important role in the protection of public health, as it constitutes an integral part of preventive health services as well as increasing the quality of life and eliminating inequalities. Considering the results of a study conducted in our country; It has been found that 68.9% of the individuals forming the society have insufficient or problematic-limited, 23.4% sufficient and 7.7% excellent health literacy level. Since individuals with low health literacy levels have difficulty in making the right decision about their health, their attitudes and behaviors towards cancer screening are more inadequate. In a study conducted in Turkey, it was concluded that women with limited health literacy had a low level of breast cancer knowledge, and that the low level of economic status and education also affected this situation. For this reason, low health literacy is considered as an important issue in terms of improving individuals' breast cancer knowledge levels and attitudes and behaviors towards screening. In a study, it was concluded that not performing BSE and not having mammography were associated with low health literacy levels. In another study, it is reported that the rate of women not having a mammogram is 52.2% and those who do not have a mammogram have a lower level of health literacy compared to women who have had a mammogram at least once.

As can be seen from the results of the study, the lack of knowledge of women on breast cancer and health literacy poses a major obstacle to people's breast cancer screening behaviors and beliefs. In order to increase social sensitivity and awareness on this issue; In particular, it is important to research, examine and examine how the municipalities and their employees, who are representatives of the society, evaluate breast cancer screening studies. From this point of view, we aimed to evaluate the effect of breast cancer screening training given to women working in the municipality on health literacy, breast cancer screening belief and behavior in our project.