Original article
English
Taisir Dameh ¹, Sameer Kofahi ²
1- Family Medicine, Royal Medical Services. 2-Community Medicine, Royal Medical Services.Irbid, Jordan
JMJ 2008,Vol.8, No.3:186-190
Abstract
Objective: This study was conducted to find out barriers for breast cancer screening among women in the north of Jordan. Methods: A descriptive study was conducted at Prince Rashed Military Hospital in Irbid City, North of Jordan, from January 2005 to January 2006. A sample of 1586 Jordanian women aged more than 35 year and absence of prior or current history of breast cancer who attended the family medicine clinic. The study parameters were socio-demographic characteristics included: age, education ,income, marital status, previous breast cancer screening, family history of breast cancer, age of first menstrual period and the use of oral contraceptive or not, Accessibility individual barriers concept (1 code for yes and 0 code for No” answer”) summation of barriers in order to get mean barriers score “from 0-15” (MBS). Socio-demographic characteristics were cross-matching MBS. Results: Breast cancer screening barriers concept shows no difference with respect to age, marital status and menarche. The barriers to breast cancer screening were significantly higher among less educated level women, low income families, women who described a family history of breast cancer and among women intake of oral contraceptive pills. Conclusion: The results of this study show that the best approach to reduce mortality associated with breast cancer is screening and early detection, because its aetiology remains uncertain. The need for a health educational program screening for such groups of patients so as to increase the awareness of women of the importance of screening and to repeat this study using qualitative methods to explore more barriers, as well as to find alternative solutions is of paramount importance.
Keywords: Barriers, Breast, Cancer.
Link/DOI: http://www.jmj.org.ly/PDF/autumn2008/186.pdf