title: Women's Awareness and Attitude Toward Breast Self-Examination in Dezful City, Iran, 2013.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Over one million new cases of breast cancer (BC) are diagnosed each year with a mortality rate of more than 600 thousand women per year. Breast self-examination (BSE) is a patient-centered, inexpensive, and noninvasive diagnostic test. We focused on the role of screening in BC in early diagnosis.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to evaluate awareness and attitude of women toward BSE in Dezful City, Iran, in 2013.
  
  
  METHODS
  This descriptive cross-sectional study included 1020 women over 15 years of age in Dezful City, in 2013. Simple random clustering was used to enroll accessible women. We have applied the available pieces of software for statistical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of recruited women was 37.1 ± 1.3 and 23.6% of participants had a history of BC in themselves or in their relatives (mother, sister, aunt, and grandmother). In addition, 70.1% of participants benefited from early diagnosis of BC, 83.3% of participants considered BSE necessary and useful for early diagnosis of BC, and 51% of them performed BSE. There was a statistically significant correlation between being married and doing BSE (P = 0.034) and between women's level of education and awareness to perform BSE (P = 0.009).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With regard to high prevalence of BC in Iran, this study showed a positive attitude of women in Dezful City toward BSE. Health policymakers in Dezful City can establish training programs to increase women's awareness of BSE and to instruct them to perform it properly.
authors.affiliation: Student Research Committee, Dezful University of Medical Sciences, Dezful, IR Iran ; Student Research Committee, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Hadi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zare Marzouni
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Islamic Azad University, Tehran Medical sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Zohreh
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lavasani
authors.affiliation: Student Research Committee, Dezful University of Medical Sciences, Dezful, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Minoo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shalilian
authors.affiliation: Student Research Committee, Tehran Medical Sciences Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Najibpour
authors.affiliation: Student Research Committee, Dezful University of Medical Sciences, Dezful, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Masoud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Saadat Fakhr
authors.affiliation: Student Research Committee, Dezful University of Medical Sciences, Dezful, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nazarzadeh
authors.affiliation: Student Research Committee, Tehran Medical Sciences Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Farshad
authors.affiliation: Department of Midwifery, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Dezful University of Medical Sciences, Dezful, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Nosrat
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bahrami
keywords: Attitude; Awareness; Breast Cancer; Self-Examination