Project on Beliefs and practices related to breast self-examination among a sample of young Cypriot and Egyptian Women
The project is under the Cyprus-Egypt bilateral agreement on research and is funded by the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation
Summary
The main objective of the research study is toutilize the modified version Champion’s Health Belief Model Scale(modified by Mikhail& Petro-Nustas, 2001) in order to assesswomen’s beliefs and practices related to breast cancer and Breast SelfExamination (BSE).
The research is targeting a sample ofCypriot women and a sample of Arab women living in Egypt, since breastcancer in both countries is considered one of the main leading causesfor women’s death.
As breast cancer mortality can beinfluenced by providing women with better chance of survival if breastcancer can be detected early; it is the purpose of this study toinvestigate factors influencing women’s beliefs and practices of BSE.
Themodified tool of Health Belief Model Scale that was adopted and testedfor its applicability on a sample of Arab Jordanian women living inJordan of the Middle East by two Arab researchers (Mikhail&Petro-Nustas, 2001) will be utilized in this research.
Thus,the Cypriot and Egyptian women’s beliefs about breast cancer and thepractice of breast self examination (as a method of early detection ofbreast cancer) will be investigated on a sample of 800 women (400 fromeach country) by two principal researchers working at RUBSI (ResearchUnit in Behaviour & Social Issues) and Cairo University.
The actual conduct of research will take place in two university institutions:
- The University of Nicosia, to which RUBSI is academically affiliated and
- Cairo University in Egypt.
Theresults of the study will be of great significance to the healthpromotion efforts done on women’s health in both Cyprus and Egypt.After getting results concerning women’s actual performance of BSE, andtheir beliefs and attitudes towards breast cancer; both researchers canplan related health education and promotion activities to encourage theuse of BSE as an easy, cheap and effective way for detecting earlybreast lumps.
As manifested in several research studies,early detection and early treatment of breast cancer have beenassociated with a better survival rate.Therefore, it’s the intentionof this research activity to investigate factors influencing thepractice of BSE including assessing women’s beliefs and attitudestowards breast cancer.
21st May. 2010