Selda Tekiner
Introduction: Colorectal Cancer (CRC) screening is one of the few methods for decreasing its incidence and invasive cancer morbidity and mortality. In Turkey, the screening participation rate is below the desired outcomes. To explain insufficient participation of some individuals at screening programs, a “Health Belief Model” (HBM) scale was developed in 1950. In this study we aimed to investigate attitudes toward prevention from CRC by the HBM scale.
Materials and methods: A questionnaire composed of 14 sociodemographic questions and 33 Health Belief Model (HBM) scale questions were applied on the patients of family medicine clinic. The data was analyzed using SPSS 21.0 statistical package program.
Results: 62.8% of the participants were women, 50.2% were university graduates. The mean points of 40-49 age group in confidence and 18-29 age group in barrier subscales were significantly higher than the other groups. The mean points of men in seriousness and singles in barrier subscales were significantly higher. Both in the barrier and motivation subscales, mean points of high school graduates were significantly highest.
Conclusion: Despite the high education level of participants, the percentage of participants who agreed with the statements about CRC screening tests remained under 70%. Population based educational and awareness projects should be implemented especially for young people, women, singles, undereducated and low socio-economic communities, related to the benefits and applicability of the CRC screening tests to eliminate the barrier perceptions for prevention from colorectal cancer. Health care workers regardless of occupation and the work step should accustom the idea of CRC screening especially among young people. They should talk about screening program at every meeting.
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