Attitudes of women from the Lublin macroregion to breast cancer prevention

Introduction: The most frequent malignant neoplasm in women is breast cancer. The objective of the paper is to evaluate knowledge and attitudes of women from the Lublin macroregion concerning breast cancer prevention.

Material and methods: The research method was a diagnostic survey. The survey questionnaire was prepared by the authors for the purposes of the study, as a research tool. The first part of the questionnaire included questions about age, place of residence, marital status, education, type of work, and financial situation of the women. The second part of the survey was focused on knowledge about prevention risk factors and symptoms of breast cancer. The research covered 100 women living in the Lublin province, selected randomly. The research lasted from March to May 2014.

Results: The primary sources of knowledge about breast cancer prevention for the surveyed women are internet (56%) and television (53%). The majority of the respondents (74%) know the basic prevention tests aimed at detection of breast cancer. However, only a half of the surveyed women regularly undergo cancer prevention tests.

Conclusions: The general knowledge of women concerning breast cancer prevention is good. Moreover, they are able to indicate main risk factors and symptoms of breast cancer. Unfortunately, health attitudes of women are not properly shaped, because women’s knowledge is not reflected in the frequency of conducting preventive screening tests. Hence, it is crucial to constantly raise awareness of women through health education and promotion of a healthy lifestyle. Such actions should be a priority in health care.