Cornelia Rada, Ileana Prejbeanu, Suzana Manolescu
Objectives: Identification of the characteristics of women who have a low regard for Breast Self-Examination (BSE), mammography (MM), Pap testing (PAP); of psychosocial barriers in their way to visiting the gynecologist for routine gynecological examinations; and if a correlation exists between cervical and breast cancer screening.
Methods: This study included 848 Romanian women, aged 18-82, who had started their sexual life. In 2007 the women were questioned regarding receiving the examinations and tests mentioned above. In 2010 we also organized two focus groups of 20 women. The Chi square test, binary logistic regression and latent class analysis were employed.
Results: The proportion of BSE monthly is very low and the proportion of no self-examination is very high in the 15-24 years and over 50 years age groups. Only 15% of the interviewed women had had an MM. The proportion of the women who had had an MM in the age group under 44 years is almost double compared with the proportion in the group 44 years and older (χ2 =10.5, df=1, p=0.001). Less than half of the interviewed women had received a routine gynecological examination in the last 3 years.
Conclusions: In respect of genital and breast health attitudes the women are distributed in four latent classes.
