Women's Studies

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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11888/3215

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Browsing Women's Studies by Author "Dr. Mariam Al-Tell"

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    Breast Cancer Screening Barriers among Women in Nablus Governorate
    (2015) Dina Zayed Younes; Dr. Mariam Al-Tell
    Introduction: Breast cancer is still one of the major health problems not only in Palestine but also all over the world. It is one of the Non Communicable Diseases (NCD) that form a biggest challenge and major public health problem that most countries especially the developing countries face. Knowing the breast cancer screening barriers that prevent women from performing breast cancer early screening can increase the chance of early detection and this can be minimize the occurrence of disease and related deaths. Objectives: The main objective was to assess the barriers that prevent women from performing breast cancer screening tests. Method: A convenient sample method including 269 women aged from 30-60 years old who lived in Nablus Governorate was used. Also a purposive sample method was used to select women’s social centers from Nablus city, two villages (Beit Furik, Beita) and Askar refugee camp. Participants filled in self-administrated questionnaire, and data analysis was done by using SPSS. Results: The percentage of the participants who knew mammogram, CBE and BSE tests (59.5%), (47.6%) and (67.3%) respectively. Moreover, the percentages of participants who did not perform mammogram and CBE tests were (60.2%) and (74.0%) respectively. The most common barriers that prevented women from performing breast cancer screening tests were “fear of suffering cancer pains” and “changing physical appearance”, “financial cost”, “afraid of having cancer”, “shy of applying the tests” and “it takes time to conducting regularly” and “test may cause pain”. Also, there were a significant relationships between mammogram barriers and place of residency (P values .046), between BSE and educational status (P values .021), between the age and geographical and financial barriers (p value.012), (p value.001) respectively, and between the educational status and geographical and financial barriers (p value.002), (p value.001) respectively. Recommendation: increase women’s knowledge about breast cancer screening tests, and to have a female physician in every clinic.