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Breast cancer awareness among older women

The aim of this study was to elicit the level of breast cancer awareness in older women. A cross-sectional study-specific questionnaire survey of 712 British women aged 67–73 years (response rate 83.8%), assessing knowledge of symptoms and risk and confidence to detect a change, was conducted. Over...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Linsell, L, Burgess, C C, Ramirez, A J
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2008
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2570528/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18813307
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sj.bjc.6604668
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author Linsell, L
Burgess, C C
Ramirez, A J
author_facet Linsell, L
Burgess, C C
Ramirez, A J
author_sort Linsell, L
collection PubMed
description The aim of this study was to elicit the level of breast cancer awareness in older women. A cross-sectional study-specific questionnaire survey of 712 British women aged 67–73 years (response rate 83.8%), assessing knowledge of symptoms and risk and confidence to detect a change, was conducted. Over 85% of respondents were aware that a lump was a symptom of breast cancer but knowledge of non-lump symptoms was limited. Knowledge of risk was poor; 50% believed that the lifetime risk of developing breast cancer was less than 1 in 100 women and 75% were not aware that age is a risk factor. Thirty-one percent of women reported low levels of confidence to detect a breast change and 19% rarely or never checked their breasts. Those with fewer educational qualifications had poorer knowledge of symptoms, less awareness of lifetime and age-related risks, but were more likely to check their breasts than more highly educated women. This national survey demonstrates a significant lack of the prerequisite knowledge and confidence to detect a breast change. Raising breast cancer awareness and promoting early presentation among older women is important, as they are more at risk of breast cancer and more likely to delay seeking help with breast cancer symptoms than younger women.
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spelling pubmed-25705282009-10-21 Breast cancer awareness among older women Linsell, L Burgess, C C Ramirez, A J Br J Cancer Clinical Study The aim of this study was to elicit the level of breast cancer awareness in older women. A cross-sectional study-specific questionnaire survey of 712 British women aged 67–73 years (response rate 83.8%), assessing knowledge of symptoms and risk and confidence to detect a change, was conducted. Over 85% of respondents were aware that a lump was a symptom of breast cancer but knowledge of non-lump symptoms was limited. Knowledge of risk was poor; 50% believed that the lifetime risk of developing breast cancer was less than 1 in 100 women and 75% were not aware that age is a risk factor. Thirty-one percent of women reported low levels of confidence to detect a breast change and 19% rarely or never checked their breasts. Those with fewer educational qualifications had poorer knowledge of symptoms, less awareness of lifetime and age-related risks, but were more likely to check their breasts than more highly educated women. This national survey demonstrates a significant lack of the prerequisite knowledge and confidence to detect a breast change. Raising breast cancer awareness and promoting early presentation among older women is important, as they are more at risk of breast cancer and more likely to delay seeking help with breast cancer symptoms than younger women. Nature Publishing Group 2008-10-21 2008-09-23 /pmc/articles/PMC2570528/ /pubmed/18813307 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sj.bjc.6604668 Text en Copyright © 2008 Cancer Research UK https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material.If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Clinical Study
Linsell, L
Burgess, C C
Ramirez, A J
Breast cancer awareness among older women
title Breast cancer awareness among older women
title_full Breast cancer awareness among older women
title_fullStr Breast cancer awareness among older women
title_full_unstemmed Breast cancer awareness among older women
title_short Breast cancer awareness among older women
title_sort breast cancer awareness among older women
topic Clinical Study
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2570528/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18813307
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sj.bjc.6604668
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