title: Yazd Breast Cancer Project Profile; A Community Based Trial for the Evaluation of Self-Examination and Physical Examination of the Breast Cancer Disease.
abstract: There is some evidence to suggest that a benefit might be derived from a program that incorporated both annual physical examination of the breast (BPx) and the teaching of breast self-examination (BSE). Current investigation presents the profile of a multicenter community based intervention for evaluating the effect of BSE+BPx on the reduction of morbidity and mortality due to breast cancer amongst women residing in urban areas of Yazd (Iran) from 2008 to 2018. There were three distinctive phases in this trial with 10 years duration: pilot phase with the duration of 1 year, active intervention phase with 4 rounds of annual screening of BPx+BSE and follow up phase with 5 years duration. Tools of enquiry included a pre-tested questionnaire, repeated annual physical examination of the breast and more importantly mammography, sonography, and fine needle aspiration (FNA). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percent, mean (SD), tests of chi-square and student t-test with 95% confidence level. Comparison of socio-demographic and socio-economic factors such as age, age at marriage, family size, number of live births, occupation, education level, total family income and marital status showed that no significant difference was seen between the groups (P>0.05). A response rate of 84.5% was seen by participants of the experiment group visiting the health centers for the first BPx. Our results showed that except for the education and marital status, the difference in other main demographic and socio-economic factors between the groups were not significant, and the response rate of individuals in the experiment group was at an acceptable level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Iran.
authors.forename: Anthony B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Medical Faculty, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Iraj
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Harirchi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Health Faculty, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Hassan
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Lotfi
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Mahmoud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Noori
authors.affiliation: Deputy for Health Affairs, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohsen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mirzaei
authors.affiliation: Deputy for Health Affairs, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Majid
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jafarizadea
authors.affiliation: Deputy for Health Affairs, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Sadeghian
authors.affiliation: Deputy for Health Affairs, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Mojgan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Minosepehr
keywords: Breast cancer; Iran; Physical examination; Self-examination; Trial; Yazd