Alkhasawneh Esra, Siddiqui Saad T, Leocadio Michael, Seshan Vidya, Al-Farsi Yahya, Al-Moundhri Mansour S
College of Nursing, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman E-mail :
Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2016;17(4):2247-54. doi: 10.7314/apjcp.2016.17.4.2247.
The incidence of breast cancer is rising in Oman, and the disease is diagnosed at late stages, when treatment success is limited. Omani women might benefit from better awareness, so that breast cancer can be detected early and treated. This study was conducted to assess Omani women's levels of breast cancer awareness and early detection practice, and explore factors which might influence these levels.
A mixed methods study was conducted in 2014, including a quantitative survey of 1,372 and a qualitative assessment of 19 Omani women, aged ≥20 years from five Omani governorates using convenient sampling. Demographic information and scores for awareness levels were used in a multivariate regression model to investigate factors associated with awareness. Thematic analysis and interpretive description were used to analyse the qualitative data.
The overall means for early detection and general awareness scores were 0.58 (SD 0.24) and 0.46 (SD 0.21), respectively. General awareness was significantly associated with age, education, income and familiarity with cancer patients (<0.05), while early detection was significantly associated with age, marital status and education. A majority of women (59.5%) agreed with a belief in 'evil eye' or envy as a risk factor for breast cancer. Women discussed various factors which may empower or inhibit awareness, including the cultural-religion-fatalistic system, personal-familial-environmental system, and healthcare-political-social system.
The overall low scores for awareness and early detection, and the survey of local beliefs highlight a severe necessity for a contextually-tailored breast cancer awareness intervention programme in Oman.
阿曼乳腺癌的发病率正在上升，且该疾病在晚期才被诊断出来，此时治疗效果有限。阿曼女性可能会从提高认识中受益，以便能早期发现并治疗乳腺癌。本研究旨在评估阿曼女性对乳腺癌的认知水平和早期检测实践情况，并探究可能影响这些水平的因素。
2014年开展了一项混合方法研究，包括对1372名女性进行定量调查以及对来自阿曼五个省份的19名年龄≥20岁的女性进行定性评估，采用方便抽样法。在多变量回归模型中使用人口统计学信息和认知水平得分来调查与认知相关的因素。采用主题分析和解释性描述来分析定性数据。
早期检测和总体认知得分的总体均值分别为0.58（标准差0.24）和0.46（标准差0.21）。总体认知与年龄、教育程度、收入以及与癌症患者的熟悉程度显著相关（<0.05），而早期检测与年龄、婚姻状况和教育程度显著相关。大多数女性（59.5%）认同“邪眼”或嫉妒是乳腺癌的一个风险因素。女性们讨论了各种可能增强或抑制认知的因素，包括文化 - 宗教 - 宿命论体系、个人 - 家庭 - 环境体系以及医疗保健 - 政治 - 社会体系。
认知和早期检测的总体得分较低，以及对当地观念的调查凸显了在阿曼开展针对具体情况的乳腺癌认知干预项目的迫切必要性。
