Status and influencing factors of knowledge,attitude,and practice about breast cancer screening among community women in Nanjing city

ObjectiveTo investigate the status and influencing factors of knowledge,attitude and practice about breast cancer screening and to provide basic evidences for the development of effective breast cancer screening intervention models.MethodsA total of 418 community women aged 40 years or older were recruited with randomized cluster sampling and were investigated with a questionnaire on knowledge,attitude,and practice about breast cancer screening.ResultsThe awareness rate of breast cancer screening knowledge was 32.8% and the influencing factors of the rate were educational level and occupation(both P<0.05);the average score of attitude towards screening mammography for the women was 31.94±4.17 and there was no significant difference in the score among the women with different sociodemographic characteristics;the rate of ever having self and clinical breast examination were 57.1% and 82.3%,and there were 47.0% and 45.7% of the women having self and clinical breast examination during previous one year.The main influencing factors of having self breast examination were age and occupation among the women(P<0.05).The rate of ever receiving mammography was 12.2% and educational level was the influencing factor of receiving mammography among the women(P<0.01).ConclusionThere was a considerable inadequacy in breast cancer screening knowledge and a low rate of having breast cancer screening among community women in Nanjing city,and the rate was influenced by age,occupation,and education of the women.