Effect of Educating Healthy Women About Breast Cancer on Their Fear of Breast Cancer and Breast Cancer Worry

Abstract

Background Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer among females worldwide and prognosis depends on early diagnosis; however women seldom seek medical attention on time. Two of the important reasons for this delay are BC worry (BCW) and fear (BCF). We aimed to assess whether educating healthy women about BC could affect their BCF and BCW. Methods Participants were women above 18 years who visited the Breast Clinic who had a normal or benign breast assessment and were not suffering from any psychological disorder. They filled a survey including items of the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS), Lerman BCW scale and Champion BCF scale before and after the intervention. In the course of the study, 20 short educational videos about BC were sent to all of them by WhatsApp. Results The mean age of the 104 participants was 38.37 years. HADS scores showed a fairly good general psychological health of the participants before and after the intervention. The mean BCW and BCF score decreased significantly after vs. before the intervention. Conclusions Our study showed that educating healthy women about BC can effectively reduce BCF and BCW. We suggest that similar studies follow the participants in order to assess the effect on their health-seeking behaviour about BC in the long term.