RESEARCH ARTICLE
Effect of Utilizing Health Belief Model on Knowledge, Beliefs, and Behaviour of Visually Impaired Women toward Breast Self-examination
Manal Mohamed Elsawy1, *
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2023Volume: 17
E-location ID: e187443462212201
Publisher ID: e187443462212201
DOI: 10.2174/18744346-v16-e221221-2022-115
Article History:
Received Date: 23/7/2022Revision Received Date: 29/10/2022
Acceptance Date: 10/11/2022
Electronic publication date: 19/01/2023
Collection year: 2023
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Breast self-examination is the most important first step in early breast cancer detection. The study aimed to measure the effectiveness of utilizing a health belief model on knowledge, beliefs, and behaviour of visually impaired women toward breast self-examination.
Methods:
A quasi-experimental design (pre/posttest) was utilized in the current study conducted at Al Nour Wal Amal Association for visually impaired women in Cairo governorate, Egypt. A purposive sample of 42 visually impaired women was included in the study. Three tools were used for the purpose of data collection, namely (I): Structured interviewing knowledge questionnaire, (II): A breast self-examination checklist, and (III): Health beliefs assessment scale.
Results:
The findings revealed a highly statistically significant difference in visually impaired women's total knowledge, total practice, and total health beliefs scores for breast self-examination before and after the program. The women's total knowledge, behaviors, and beliefs improved in the posttest compared to the pretest.
Conclusion:
The study results concluded that there was an improvement in knowledge, practice, and health beliefs regarding breast self-examination among visually impaired women after program implementation, which emphasized that educational programs based on the health beliefs model have a significant positive effect in improving women’s knowledge, practice, and health beliefs toward breast self-examination. It is recommended to establish educational programs to raise awareness about breast cancer and breast self-examination among visually impaired women through special schools and community associations. Moreover, community health nurses play a crucial role in educating women about breast self-examination as they are in a unique position to raise breast cancer awareness, especially among at-risk groups.
