The Health Beliefs Relating to Mammography of Midwives and Nurses

Abstract

This study describes the beliefs that are held by a group of 35 years and older/over women with regard to mammography utilization, as one type of breast cancer screening. The study utilized a descriptive exploratory design with a precoded self-administered questionnaire. This study was conducted in two hospitals in Ordu, Turkey. In those hospitals, there were total 72 nurses and 19 midwives at 35 years and older/over and 5 nurses and 2 midwives could not participate as they were not available because of health problems. Therefore, the sample consisted of 17 midwives and 67 nurses ages 35 years and older/over. The Data was collected between January 1st and March 15th 2005. Questionnaire was developed by researcher and consisted of questions about demographic characteristics, knowledge of mammography, having a previous mammogram, and family history of breast cancer. This study utilized a part of the Champion's revised Health Belief Model Scale. Mean, percent, cronbach alpha, t-test, and mann-whitney U test were used to analyze the data. 79.8% (n=67) of participants were nurses and 20.2% (n=17) were midwives. At the end of the study it has been shown that the nurses perceive the benefits of mammography more than midwifes. In the study, it has been found out that those who don't having a previous mammogram perceive the barriers of mammography higher than the others. These results can be considered highly important as the nurses working in public health can effectively guide to the women for the early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.