Family and Community Medicine Department, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine.
Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Nablus, Palestine.
Eur J Gen Pract. 2021 Dec;27(1):264-270. doi: 10.1080/13814788.2021.1985996.
Breast cancer affects women's lives worldwide, yet early detection is an effective strategy for reducing mortality. The participation of women in mammography screening is linked to their knowledge, attitudes and perceived barriers.
Our study aims to assess mammography screening uptake and barriers among women attending primary healthcare centres (PHCs) in northern Palestine.
Using an interviewer administered questionnaire, we used a cross-sectional study design to determine mammography screening uptake, knowledge and barriers among 357 women attending PHCs in Northern Palestine between December 2018 and March 2019.
The mean age was 50 years. The majority (69.2%) were considered to have adequate knowledge about breast cancer and mammography screening. Mammography screening uptake among the participants was 37%. Almost 85% of the women had a positive attitude towards breastfeeding as a prophylaxis factor against breast cancer, while the most frequent barrier to mammography screening was that the participants believed they did not have any symptoms (28.6%), followed by 22.1% of them who did not want to know if they had breast cancer.
The findings of this study highlighted the low mammography uptake among Palestinian women despite the adequate knowledge of those women and the fully accessible and free screening programme. Hence, interventional strategies should be implemented at several levels to enhance mammogram uptake.
乳腺癌影响着全世界女性的生活，而早期发现是降低死亡率的有效策略。女性参与乳房 X 光筛查与其知识、态度和感知障碍有关。
本研究旨在评估在巴勒斯坦北部初级保健中心就诊的女性进行乳房 X 光筛查的情况及其障碍。
我们采用问卷调查的方式，对 2018 年 12 月至 2019 年 3 月期间在巴勒斯坦北部初级保健中心就诊的 357 名女性进行了一项横断面研究，以确定乳房 X 光筛查的参与情况、知识和障碍。
平均年龄为 50 岁。大多数（69.2%）被认为对乳腺癌和乳房 X 光筛查有足够的了解。参与者的乳房 X 光筛查率为 37%。近 85%的女性对母乳喂养作为预防乳腺癌的因素持积极态度，而对乳房 X 光筛查的最大障碍是参与者认为自己没有任何症状（28.6%），其次是 22.1%的女性不想知道自己是否患有乳腺癌。
尽管巴勒斯坦女性对乳腺癌的认识足够，但由于对乳腺癌的认识不足，且筛查计划完全免费且可及，因此，应该在多个层面实施干预策略，以提高乳房 X 光检查的参与率。
