The effect of educational intervention based on the protective motivation theory on awareness and early detection behaviours of breast cancer in women

ABSTRACT

‘Cancer control and early detection’ is one of the priority programs of the World Health Organization. This quasi-experimental study aimed to investigate the effect of educational intervention, based on the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), on awareness and early detection behaviours of breast cancer (BC) in women. The eligible women were randomly selected through electronic health records, and divided into the intervention (IG) (n = 45) and control groups (CG) (n = 45). Data were collected in three phases: baseline (T1), immediately (T2) and two-month (T3) after the PMT-based intervention using four questionnaires of Demographic-Clinical Information, Awareness of BC Warning Signs, Awareness of BC Early Detection Behaviours and Modified Early Cancer Detection Behaviours – BC version. Results showed that the PMT-based education influenced the awareness and behaviours of participants in the IG group compared with the CG over time (p < 0.001). The mean and standard deviation of variables improved in the IG in comparison to the CG from T1 to T3: ‘awareness of BC warning signs’ [IG: (T1: 68.50 ± 5.47) to (T3: 89.40 ± 3.50)] [CG: (T1: 69.70 ± 5.87) to (T3: 67.40 ± 2.42)], ‘awareness of early detection behaviours’ [IG: (T1: 78.65 ± 4.47) to (T3: 89.55 ± 4.74)] [CG: (T1: 79.20 ± 5.45) to (T3: 84.10 ± 2.89)] and ‘protection behaviours’ [IG: (T1: 65.01 ± 23.99) to (T3: 98.15 ± 12.20)] [CG: (T1: 56.94 ± 20.85) to (T3: 57.68 ± 21.01)]. Thus, women in this context should be motivated and empowered towards protective health behaviours for early detection of BC. It is suggested that healthcare providers develop PMT-based programs for BC early detection in women in different settings of the community.

KEYWORDS:

• Social Cognitive Theory
• Early Detection of Cancer
• Breast Neoplasms
• Health Education
• Women

Acknowledgments

This study was accepted by the Research Ethics Committee of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (Code: IR.SBMU.PHNM.1396.783). We would like to thank all women that who participated in our study. This article represents the results of the first author Master Thesis (Leila Hakimi Hashjin) which was supervised by Dr. Camelia Rohani.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.