ABSTRACT
Breast cancer is the most common cause of premature mortality among women, and screening is one of the most important means of early diagnosis of breast cancer. This qualitative study was conducted to explore strategies for promoting breast cancer screening behaviors from the perspective of health volunteers in south-east Iran. Data collection was performed through focus groups. Using the purposive sampling method, 35 participants were selected and data were analyzed using a specific qualitative content analysis framework. By analyzing the data to provide strategies for promoting breast cancer screening behaviors, the main theme of "organizational transformation" with five subthemes including the promotion of health-centered beliefs in society, the development of culture-based training, the media revolution, financial support, and the provision of efficient health-care providers were extracted. According to the results of the study, the development of organizational transformation plays an important role in planning for the promotion of breast cancer screening.
Subject(s)
Breast Neoplasms , Breast Neoplasms/diagnosis , Early Detection of Cancer , Female , Focus Groups , Humans , Iran , Qualitative ResearchABSTRACT
Background: Breast cancer is common among cancer diseases and the second leading cause of death among women worldwide. The breast cancer-caused death is directly associated with diagnosis time of the disease. Screening is one of the major methods for health promotion in human societies. However, many women still refuse to do the periodic screening. The present study is aimed to analyze the experiences of health volunteers in order to understand the barriers to breast cancer screening among women at southeast of Iran. Methods: Data collection was performed through focus groups. Using the purposive sampling method, 24 participants were selected and then were allocated to 6-member groups. The data were analysed using Lundman and Graneheim qualitative content analysis. Results: The main theme of "Health Damage Context" was extracted with four main categories, including: family barriers, cultural and social barriers, personal barriers and organizational barriers. Conclusion: Based on the results of the present study, there are numerous barriers to regular breast cancer screening, and for the same reasons, the willingness to screening is sometimes not satisfactory. Therefore, in case of the women's referral to health centers, nurses and other health-care professionals should inform them about the role of different screening methods in early diagnosis and rapid treatment of breast cancer.