Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in female population in the Czech Republic. In 2002 the Czech Republic joined most European countries and launched nation-wide mammography screening, enabling women to attend regular preventive examinations when they reach 45 years of age. In January 2014 they started to address women to invite them for preventive breast cancer examinations, as part of a nationwide information campaign. Mortality of this cancer has been decreasing in recent years, which can be explained by the increasing quality of treatment and earlier detection of the disease. Therefore, knowledge of primary and secondary prevention is very important. The theoretical part briefly describes the anatomy of female breasts, defines a malignant tumor, as well as epidemiological aspects of breast cancer. Another chapter is about prevention itself. In the secondary prevention I describe self-examination of breasts and the history and nature of mammography screening. I also present organizations implementing preventive programs aimed at breast cancer. The practical part includes research results, which were obtained through quantitative research questionnaires. The research group consisted of women who live in the Ústí region. The questionnaire consisted of 27 questions and was answered by a group of 150 women between 18 and 44 years old and 150 women over 45 years. I handed out these questionnaires in Ústí healthcare center and I also created an electronic questionnaire which I sent across social networks. Out of the 150 (100 %) questionnaires distributed in Ústí healthcare center, I got only 60 back and 58 of them were sufficiently completed for the needs of the research, the return was only 38.7 %. I received the remaining 242 questionnaires electronically. The aim of the study was to explore the awareness of risk factors of breast cancer of women in the Ústí Region and also to find out whether women in the Ústí region carried out self-examination of breasts and if women over 45 attended regular mammography screening. Based on my research aim I set out four hypotheses. Hypothesis 1: Women in the Ústí region are informed about the risk factors of breast cancer. Hypothesis 2: Women at the age of 18 to 44 in the Usti region are more informed about the risk factors of breast cancer than women in the age group over 45. Hypothesis 3: The difference in the frequency of breast self-examination among women in the age group 18 to 44 is statistically more significant than in women in the over 45 age group. Hypothesis 4: Attending mammography examination of women over 45 in the Ústí region rises according to their level of education. The results of testing my hypotheses show that women in the Ústí region are not informed about the risk factors of breast cancer. I assumed that awareness is higher among women in the 18 to 44 age group, but even this hypothesis wasn't proven. Awareness of risk factors is on the same level in category of 18 to 44 years as in women over 45 years of age. Regarding breast self-examination, women in the above 45 years old age group carry out self-examination more often than women 18 to 44 years old. Even the last hypothesis was not confirmed, attendance of mammography doesn't appear to depend on the education of women. Awareness of women needs to increase, especially in case of risk factors of breast cancer. Awareness increase could be achieved by greater information campaign on television, in newspapers, in businesses with high numbers of working women, or in secondary and higher education through various public lectures. Over 90% of women attend Mammography screening according to my research, which are laudable results. The fact that the actual self-examination of breasts isn't carried out at all by more than half of the women in the age group 18 to 44 is serious. This work could serve as teaching or study material to improve general knowledge of this topic.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nusl.cz/oai:invenio.nusl.cz:200633 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | WEISSOVÁ, Veronika |
| Source Sets | Czech ETDs |
| Language | Czech |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
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