Biomaterial Database

Health beliefs of rural Appalachian women and the practice of breast self-examination. 1997

J P Sortet, and S R Banks

School of Nursing, Marshall University, Huntington, WV 25755-9500, USA.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between health beliefs of rural Appalachian women and the practice of breast self-examination (BSE). The sample consisted of 130 women residing in rural Appalachia who were recruited from various groups. The mean age was 53. They completed Champion's Health Belief Scale, which consisted of six Likert subscales: Susceptibility, Seriousness, Benefits, Barriers, Health Motivation, and Confidence. The women were questioned if they did BSE and were asked to respond to the following statement: "If I had cancer, I would rather not know it." Only 34.9% reported that they did monthly BSE. Two of the six subscales correlated significantly with reports of doing monthly BSE. Women who reported more confidence in doing BSE and perceived more benefits from doing BSE were significantly more likely to do regular exams. Interestingly, 18% indicated that they would rather not know if they had cancer and another 17% had neutral feelings. The findings support the need for culturally sensitive education programs on BSE for rural Appalachian women. Consideration must be given to their health beliefs in relation to health promotion.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007722	Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice	Knowledge, attitudes, and associated behaviors which pertain to health-related topics such as PATHOLOGIC PROCESSES or diseases, their prevention, and treatment. This term refers to non-health workers and health workers (HEALTH PERSONNEL).	Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
D008875	Middle Aged	An adult aged 45 - 64 years.	Middle Age
D011795	Surveys and Questionnaires	Collections of data obtained from voluntary subjects. The information usually takes the form of answers to questions, or suggestions.	Community Survey,Nonrespondent,Questionnaire,Questionnaires,Respondent,Survey,Survey Method,Survey Methods,Surveys,Baseline Survey,Community Surveys,Methodology, Survey,Nonrespondents,Questionnaire Design,Randomized Response Technique,Repeated Rounds of Survey,Respondents,Survey Methodology,Baseline Surveys,Design, Questionnaire,Designs, Questionnaire,Methods, Survey,Questionnaire Designs,Questionnaires and Surveys,Randomized Response Techniques,Response Technique, Randomized,Response Techniques, Randomized,Survey, Baseline,Survey, Community,Surveys, Baseline,Surveys, Community,Techniques, Randomized Response
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D001061	Appalachian Region	A geographical area of the United States with no definite boundaries but comprising northeastern Alabama, northwestern Georgia, northwestern South Carolina, western North Carolina, eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, western Virginia, West Virginia, western Maryland, southwestern Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, and southern New York.	Appalachia
D001294	Attitude to Health	Public attitudes toward health, disease, and the medical care system.	Health Attitude,Attitude, Health,Attitudes, Health,Health Attitudes,Health, Attitude to
D012424	Rural Population	The inhabitants of rural areas or of small towns classified as rural.	Rural Residence,Rural Communities,Rural Spatial Distribution,Communities, Rural,Community, Rural,Distribution, Rural Spatial,Distributions, Rural Spatial,Population, Rural,Populations, Rural,Residence, Rural,Rural Community,Rural Populations,Rural Residences,Rural Spatial Distributions
D016504	Breast Self-Examination	The inspection of one's breasts, usually for signs of disease, especially neoplastic disease.	Self-Examination, Breast,Breast Self Examination,Breast Self-Examinations,Self Examination, Breast,Self-Examinations, Breast