Effect of Planned Follow-up on Married Women’s Health Beliefs and Behaviors Concerning Breast and Cervical Cancer Screenings

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify the effect of planned follow-up visits on married women’s health beliefs and behaviors concerning breast and cervical cancer screenings. The study was conducted using the single-group pre-test/ post-test and quasi-experimental study designs. The sample of the study included 153 women. Data were collected using a Personal Information Form, the Health Belief Model (HBM) Scale for Breast Cancer Screening, the HBM Scale for Cervical Cancer Screening, and a Pap smear test. Data were collected using the aforementioned tools from September 2012 to March 2013. Four follow-up visits were conducted, nurses were educated, and telephone reminders were utilized. Friedman’s test, McNemar’s test, and descriptive statistics were used for data analyzing. The frequency of performing breast self-examination (BSE) at the last visit increased to 84.3 % compared to the pre-training. A statistically significant difference was observed between the pre- and post-training median values in four subscales except for the subscale of perceived seriousness of cervical cancer under Bthe Health Belief Model Scale for Cervical Cancer and the Pap Smear Test^ (p < 0.001). The rate of performing BSE significantly increased after the training and follow-up visits. Also, the rate of having a Pap smear significantly increased after the followup visits