Women's health beliefs and uptake of breast cancer screening in Malaysia
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-1-2022
Abstract
This study investigated women's health beliefs, the use of breast cancer (BC) screening services, and the factors that potentially influence uptake of screening. Methods Face-to-face interviews were conducted with a randomly selected community sample of 992 women (>40 years old) in Selangor State, Malaysia. Results Approximately 35% of women received a clinical breast examination (CBE) and 27% had a mammogram within the last 1 to 2 years. The regression analyses indicated that Chinese ethnicity has higher perceived susceptibility to BC compared to Malay ethnicity (mean 7.74, SD: 2.75; 95% CI 0.09, 1.03) whilst a lower perceived susceptibility was observed in women aged >= 70 years (mean 6.67, SD: 3.01; 95% CI -1.66, -0.24) compared to women aged 40-49 years. Indian Malaysian women (mean 16.87, SD: 2.59; 95% CI 0.12, 1.01) and women who had received a CBE (mean 16.10, SD:2.35; 95% CI 0.18, 0.89) were more likely to have higher perceived benefits scoring. Indian ethnicity, secondary education and tertiary education, top 20% income group, past history of CBE and mammogram uptake were significantly associated with lower barriers scoring. Conclusions There is a need to target BC screening uptake improvement programmes towards communities in which women experience disadvantages related to income, education, employment, and, in particular, to tailor programmes to take into consideration differences between ethnic groups regarding their beliefs about cancer screening.
Keywords
Breast cancer, Clinical breast examination, Health beliefs, Malaysia, Mammogram
Divisions
fac_med
Funders
UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) Medical Research Council UK (MRC) [MR/P013910/1],Medical Research Council UKRI GCRF [MR/S014349/1],UK MRC-Newton Ungku Omar Funding [IF 019-2017]
Publication Title
European Journal of Cancer Care
Volume
31
Issue
5
Publisher
Wiley
Publisher Location
111 RIVER ST, HOBOKEN 07030-5774, NJ USA