Breast self-exams by teenagers: outcome of a teaching program.
Teaching breast self-care as breast changes occur in the adolescent girl can influence positive behaviors such as performing breast self-examinations and seeking regular professional breast examinations. Health promotion behaviors often are taught in high school, but little research has been performed on teaching breast health in a high school setting. Therefore, this descriptive study aimed to identify the beliefs, knowledge, and practices of breast self-examination in adolescent girls. A pre- and posttest design was used to determine whether a teaching program would change beliefs, knowledge, and practices of breast self-examination. The results of this study demonstrate that a one-time intervention can be successful in increasing breast self-examination practice and the knowledge of breast self-examination and cancer in adolescents. Before the intervention, approximately 66% of students said they never examined their breasts, and only 3% performed breast self-examination monthly. In 1 month after teaching, these percentages changed appreciably, with 32% of students reporting that they never practiced breast self-examination and 23% reporting that they practiced breast self-examination monthly.
Ludwick
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College of Nursing, Kent State University, OH 44242-0001, USA.
Gaczkowski
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D000293:Adolescent; D016497:Adolescent Health Services; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000451:nursing / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016504:Breast Self-Examination / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D009820:Ohio; D009859:Oncology Nursing; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012573:School Nursing; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires