"I don't know what I'm feeling for": young women's beliefs about breast cancer risk and experiences of breast awareness.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Younger women are often diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. Beliefs about risk are instrumental in motivating many health protective behaviours, but there may be confusion around which behaviour is appropriate to detect breast cancer earlier. Breast awareness, defined as an understanding of how the breasts look and feel so changes can be identified early, is widely recommended. In contrast, breast self-examination involves palpation using a specified method. We aimed to investigate young women's beliefs about their risk and experiences of breast awareness.

Methods

Thirty-seven women aged 30-39 years residing in a North West region of England with no family or personal history of breast cancer participated in seven focus groups (n = 29) and eight individual inte

SUBMITTER: Hindmarch S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10276361 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature