IJERPH, Vol. 19, Pages 1618: Changing Health Beliefs about Breast Cancer Screening among Women in Multi-Ethnic Malaysia

This study evaluated the impact of the ‘Be Cancer Alert’ mass media campaign for breast cancer (BCAC-BC) in terms of changes to women’s health beliefs regarding BC susceptibility and the benefits and barriers of breast cancer screening in Malaysia. Pre- and post-campaign surveys evaluated changes in health beliefs among women aged 40 years and above (n = 676). The perceived susceptibility to breast cancer was significantly higher at follow-up (mean ± SD: 7.30 ± 2.77 vs. 7.63 ± 2.58, p = 0.008) whereas the mean score for the perceived benefits of undertaking screening was high at baseline and follow-up (16.34 ± 2.36 vs. 15.95 ± 2.07, p = 0.001). The perceptions or beliefs about barriers to screening did not change significantly (31.70 ± 8.26 vs. 31.77 ± 7.63, p= 0.841). Regression analyses indicated that mean scores for the barriers subscale were significantly lower among Chinese women (−2.61, 95%CI −4.67, −0.55, p = 0.013) compared to Malay, and among single compared to married women (−2.40, 95%CI −4.60, −0.21, p = 0.032) after adjustment for other demographic variables and past screening history. Malaysian women appeared to already have positive perceptions before the BCAC-BC mass media campaign about the benefits of BC screening. However, the camp...
Source: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research