Objective:

Breast and cervical cancer in women all over the world is an important cause of death due to cancer. Early diagnosis increases treatment success and life expectancy. In this study, health professionals playing a key role in raising the awareness of society on the issue of knowledge, attitudes, and behavior have been investigated.

Methods:

Two hundred female health workers were ıncluded in the study. The research ethics committee of our hospital between January 2013-March 2013 approval was based. Seventeen questions in the questionnaire regarding demographic data, breast self-examination (BSE), mammography, breast ultrasonography (USG), smear test, hepatitis vaccine, the HPV vaccine, blood count, blood chemistry, and the incidence of hepatitis markers were used.

Results:

The age of the participants was between 20 to 62 with a mean of 36.46±9.54 years: 58.5% (n=117) nurses, 14% (n=28) specialist doctors, 16% (n=32) resident doctors, and 11.5% (n=23) as working servants [79.5% (n=159) university, 16% (n=32) high school, 4.5% (n=9) primary school graduates]. Also, 144 (72%) of the participants were married, and 12% of the participants (n=24) had a family history of cervical or breast cancer. Thirteen (6.5%) people stated that menopause. BSE and 21% of the respondents, 56% of mammograms and/or breast ultrasound, 56.5% stated that they did not smear at all. Of the participants, 72% (n=144) had knowledge about the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine, and 6.5% of them had the HPV vaccine. Complete blood count and blood chemistry tests in the past year had a very high rate. This rate was 84% for complete blood count (n=168) and 87% (n=174) for blood biochemistry. Hepatitis markers is 80.5% of those who received in the past year (n=161). Furthermore, 95.5% had the hepatitis vaccine.

Conclusion:

Among female health workers, complete blood count, blood chemistry tests, and hepatitis markers are considered to be absolutely necessary, but they do not show the same sensitivity about cancer screening tests. The restrictive side of our study is the low average age for starting breast cancer screening. However, it is remarkable that more than half of the participants had never had a smear test, which is recommended starting at age of 21 and should be done yearly. In this study, cervical cancer screening, especially in terms of the attitudes of health care workers, was found to be insufficient on its own care.

Keywords: Pap smear, female health care workers, survey