The Relationship Between Women's Health Literacy and Breast Cancer Concern Levels

Abstract

The research was done descriptively and cross-sectionally to define the relationship between women's health literacy and their anxiety levels regarding breast cancer. 315 female patients participated in the study who are over the age of 20 and inpatient women of a training and research hospital. The interval of study was three months (May and July 2022). Researchers obtained the research data with face-to-face interview technique and they used the "Personal Information Form", "Breast Cancer Concern Scale (BCCS)", and "Health Literacy Scale (HLS)". The mean HLS and BCSS scores of women were 103.8±19 and 9.2±5.6 respectively. It has been found that women's employment status, menopause, education level and knowledge of breast self-examination (BSE) and having BSE have an impact on their level of health literacy. With correlation analysis, it was defined that there was a statistically insignificant and low level, negative relationship between the women’s total mean scores of HLS and the BCCS (r=-0.06, p>0.05). As a result, it was determined that women had above moderate level of health literacy and low level of anxiety about breast cancer, and there was no relationship between health literacy level and breast cancer anxiety. The results showed that women's education level, working outside the home, menopause status, and whether they know and regularly practice BSE affect their health literacy.