The knowledge attitude and behaviours of female health professionals regarding the breast cancer in Çorum, Turkey

The awareness of health professionals about breast cancer prevention has a vital importance, since health professionals beliefs and behaviors may have an impact on other women.  The aim of this study is to investigate the knowledge, attitudes on risk factors of the breast cancer as well as screening programs such as breast self-examination (BSE), clinical breast examination and mammography among different groups of female health professionals. In this cross-sectional study a total of 485 people (including female physicians n=67, nurses n=236 and midwives n=141) in various health centers located in Çorum Province, Turkey. They were interviewed using a self-administered questionnaire (overall response rate was 80.6%).
The mean age was 34.2±5.1 in female physicians, 32.5±6.6 in nurses and 33.5±6.0 in midwives, and most were married (81.0%).  Approximately 27.1 % of the respondents believed that ‘Like every other woman I am at risk of breast cancer. Majority of the group (98.4 %) was believed that BSE was a beneficial method to identify to earl detection of breast cancer. Although 81.3 % of the group reporting performed BSE, only 23.3 % reported doing so on a regular basis (performed monthly or once per menstrual cycle). The rate of doing BSE regularly was higher in physicians (31.3 %) than nurses (20.4 %) and midwives (24.1 %). The most common reason for not doing BSE was the belief that it was not necessary (45.8 %).  Of the entire group, only 10.2 % of them had gone for a screening mammogram and 24.8 % had gone for clinical breast examination. The rate of application to clinical breast examination is the highest in physicians.  
Health professionals are a direct source of medical information to the public. The use of BSE and mammography were found lower than expected when considering the fact that participants were health care professionals.