Comparison of mammography behaviors, health beliefs, and fear levels of women with and without familial breast cancer history.

This comparative descriptive study compared mammography behaviors, health beliefs, and fear levels of Turkish women aged 40-69 years, who had or did not have a familial breast cancer history (FBCH). The sample included first-degree female relatives (n = 350) of 220 female patients who had received breast cancer treatment at Akdeniz University Hospital and first-degree female relatives of women who did not have a FBCH (n = 300) who had applied to a Family Health Center (FHC) in Antalya. Data were collected between October 2015 and March 2016. The percentage of women who regularly had a mammography was 38% in women with a FBCH and 15.3% in women without a FBCH. Women with a FBCH had higher susceptibility, seriousness, health motivation, mammography self-efficacy perception, and fear of breast cancer, and lower perception of mammography barriers than women without a FBCH. The frequency of having mammography in women with and without a FBCH increased with increased susceptibility perception and was higher in women with a FBCH than in women without a FBCH. Additionally, being single increased mammography screening behavior in those with FBCH. Trainings on screenings should emphasize risks of breast cancer and mammography barriers of the married ones should be reduced.