Do Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice of Iranian Health Care Providers Meet WHO Recommendations on Early Detection for Breast Cancer?

Abstract

Objectives: The present study was carried out to assess knowledge, attitudes and practice (KAP) concerning early detection for breast cancer among Iranian health care providers (HCP). Methods: Three hundred and eighteen HCPs were selected with stratified simple random sampling and given questionnaires to determine their baseline KAP for breast cancer early detection. Results were compared among categories of age, educational level, marriage status and professional experience with the Chi square test. Results: For six knowledge questions, 71.8% participants had four or more correct responses, 80.5% agreed completely with 'women will accept the screening program if the physicians advise it'. However, 48% of female HCPs did not carry out any method of breast cancer screening for themselves during the last year; 81.5% did not carry out breast examinations for the majority of female outpatients and inpatients during last year; only 5.1% recommended breast self examination (BSE) to more than 70% of their female patients. Conclusions: Knowledge and attitudes are relatively appropriate, but practical measures are not enough. Considering the HCP's role for implementing the national breast cancer control program, improvement in knowledge and attitudes is still important, but this may not be enough to reach to an appropriate level of desired practice.