Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

Background: In Iran, breast cancer is the most common cancers and the first cause of death from cancer. The purpose of this paper was to present accurate educational needs in various women's groups and by providing effective strategies to increase awareness of the different dimensions of the disease, preventing breast cancer, or if it occurs, be discovered and treated at an early stage. These ultimately can reduce the burden of the disease in the community.
Methods: This study, using data collected in 2012, was conducted as a cross-sectional study on 10,000 Esfahanian women aged 20 to 65 years. Of these, 9260 women were eligible for the study and the data from the questionnaire were analysed using Latent Class Regression.
Results: The mean±SD age of the subjects in this study was 37.5±11.7 years. In evaluating the factors affecting the identification of risk factors for breast cancer, age variable had very little effect on the placement of subjects at different levels. The chance for women with positive family history of breast cancer in class I and II is 30% higher than class III.
Conclusion: The place of residence of people (urban / rural) had the most effect on the level of awareness of all aspects of breast cancer. Thus, those individuals living in urban areas had a greater chance of being placed at a higher level of aware than rural residents, which could be due to the unjust distribution of wealth and educational, health and medical facilities.