Effect of structured training programme on the knowledge and behaviors of breast and cervical cancer screening among the female teachers in Turkey

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer and cervical cancer are the most common cancers among women in the world. Many studies on the early detection of cancer have been conducted among women worldwide, but few studies have been performed in the world on female teachers regarding breast self-examination (BSE), mammography (MMG) and Pap smear test (PST). As teachers interact with students, this could play an important role in health education and in developing healthy behavior such as cancer screening. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a structured teaching program on breast and cervical cancer screening on the knowledge and practice of teachers. The other objective was to encourage teachers to transfer this knowledge to the women who attended their courses. METHODS: Semi –experimental designs with pre-intervention, post-intervention and six month follow-up tests were used in this study. The data were collected from 37 volunteer teachers and their 64 volunteer students with a sociodemographic form, a questionnaire form for breast and cervical cancer, and a Transtheoretical Model of behavior change for BSE, MMG and PST. Behavior of the teachers related to BSE, MMG, PST was evaluated in pre-training and in the first, third and sixth months post-training, and the behavior of the students was evaluated with point follow-up in the sixth month. RESULTS: In post-training, it was determined that the teachers’ knowledge of breast cancer increased from 11.70 ± 2.80 to 14.81 ± 3.22 and their knowledge of cervical cancer increased from 7.75 ± 5.60 to 17.68 ± 3.79. For BSE behavior, 47.8% of teachers were in the action and maintenance stage in pre-training, but this ratio was 81.1% in the sixth month post-training. For MMG behavior, all of the teachers were in the precontemplation stage in pre-training, and 38.9% of them were in the action and maintenance stage in the sixth month post-training. For PST, while 24.3% were in the action and maintenance stage in pre-training, this ratio was 45.9% in the sixth month post-training. CONCLUSION: It was determined that the behavior change for BSE, MMG, PST was positive. Similarly, knowledge transfer from teachers to students was also effective. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12905-017-0478-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.