The Relationship between Breast Cancer Prevention and Breast Cancer Screening Behaviours in Tehranian Women: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most commonly occurring cancer in women. It is also one of the most important health issues in many countries. Its high prevalence in women makes it necessary to encourage breast cancer screening behaviours. Aim: To investigate the relationship between breast cancer prevention behaviour and its screening behaviour in Tehranian women. Materials and Methods: This was cross-sectional study conducted on 859 women from November to December 2019 by the Iran University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, Iran. These women were selected by the multistage cluster method among five socio-economic classes living in different districts of Tehran. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to determine the relationship between breast cancer prevention behaviour and its screening behaviour. Data were analysed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0 and Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) software. The level of significance was set at 0.05. Results: The mean age of the participants was 42 +/- 6.94 years. Also,137 (15.9%) of the participants were single, and 604 (70.3%) were married, 78 (9.08%) were divorced and rest widow. Among the studied subjects, 510 (57%) had unfavourable breast cancer screening behaviour. In Pearson's correlation test, there was a direct and significant relationship between the mean score of breast cancer prevention behaviour and its subscales with breast cancer screening behaviour, except for the dimension of information-seeking (r=0.35, p=0.007). In other words, with the increased breast cancer prevention behaviour, breast cancer screening behaviour also increased. The results of SEM analysis showed that breast cancer prevention behaviour was positively correlated to breast cancer screening behaviour (p<0.001), and about 41% of changes in the breast cancer screening behaviour could be explained by the breast cancer prevention behaviour (ss=0.41, p= 0.01). Conclusion: Based on the results, it seems vital to take measures to inform and educate women about breast cancer and its complications, problems, prevention, screening, and diagnostic methods. The findings of this study can be used to increase motivation in the design of interventions in order to improve attitude, strengthen self-efficacy, reduce stress, and improve breast cancer screening behaviour.