Breast awareness mobile apps for health education and promotion for breast cancer
BackgroundLack of knowledge, poor awareness, and attitude are barriers to breast cancer (BC) screening participation. The ubiquitous usage of mobile phones makes it a perfect platform for delivering interventions to increase knowledge and awareness in screening, a strategy for early identification o...
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-10-01
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Series: | Frontiers in Public Health |
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Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.951641/full |
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author | Azlina Yusuf Yulita Hanum P. Iskandar Imi Sairi Ab Hadi Arryana Nasution Soon Lean Keng |
author_facet | Azlina Yusuf Yulita Hanum P. Iskandar Imi Sairi Ab Hadi Arryana Nasution Soon Lean Keng |
author_sort | Azlina Yusuf |
collection | DOAJ |
description | BackgroundLack of knowledge, poor awareness, and attitude are barriers to breast cancer (BC) screening participation. The ubiquitous usage of mobile phones makes it a perfect platform for delivering interventions to increase knowledge and awareness in screening, a strategy for early identification of BC. However, although numerous applications for BC prevention are available on major mobile phone platforms, relatively few have been tested in scientific studies to determine their efficacy.ObjectiveThis study aimed to assess the efficacy of BrAware Apps in increasing the knowledge of BC risk factors, awareness of warning signs and confidence in breast self-examination (BSE) among women in northeast peninsular Malaysia.MethodsA quasi-experimental pre and post-test research design were conducted with 41 women participants in Kelantan, Malaysia, before and after using the BrAware apps. Participants were given an online, adapted Breast Cancer Awareness Measure questionnaire. Post-test was 2 months after using the BrAware apps. Comparison using paired T-tests were conducted to evaluate the change in knowledge of risk factors, warning signs awareness and confidence level for BSE.ResultsThe mean age of women was 39.71(SD = 8.80). The participants' mean knowledge score of BC warning signs differs before using BrAware (mean 70.62, SD 11.74) and after using the BrAware app (mean 79.83, SD 10.15) at the <0.001 level of significance.ConclusionsThe BrAware mobile app had a positive effect in increasing the women's knowledge of risk factors of BC, warning signs awareness and confidence level for BSE. It can be concluded that the mobile app may be an adjunct in educating women on BC. |
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format | Article |
id | doaj.art-3ea1875da5f24fcdb53f98c354cb8a6e |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 2296-2565 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-04-11T19:37:08Z |
publishDate | 2022-10-01 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | Article |
series | Frontiers in Public Health |
spelling | doaj.art-3ea1875da5f24fcdb53f98c354cb8a6e2022-12-22T04:06:50ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Public Health2296-25652022-10-011010.3389/fpubh.2022.951641951641Breast awareness mobile apps for health education and promotion for breast cancerAzlina Yusuf0Yulita Hanum P. Iskandar1Imi Sairi Ab Hadi2Arryana Nasution3Soon Lean Keng4School of Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, MalaysiaGraduate School of Business, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, MalaysiaDepartment of Surgery, Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II, Kota Bharu, MalaysiaSchool of Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, MalaysiaSchool of Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, MalaysiaBackgroundLack of knowledge, poor awareness, and attitude are barriers to breast cancer (BC) screening participation. The ubiquitous usage of mobile phones makes it a perfect platform for delivering interventions to increase knowledge and awareness in screening, a strategy for early identification of BC. However, although numerous applications for BC prevention are available on major mobile phone platforms, relatively few have been tested in scientific studies to determine their efficacy.ObjectiveThis study aimed to assess the efficacy of BrAware Apps in increasing the knowledge of BC risk factors, awareness of warning signs and confidence in breast self-examination (BSE) among women in northeast peninsular Malaysia.MethodsA quasi-experimental pre and post-test research design were conducted with 41 women participants in Kelantan, Malaysia, before and after using the BrAware apps. Participants were given an online, adapted Breast Cancer Awareness Measure questionnaire. Post-test was 2 months after using the BrAware apps. Comparison using paired T-tests were conducted to evaluate the change in knowledge of risk factors, warning signs awareness and confidence level for BSE.ResultsThe mean age of women was 39.71(SD = 8.80). The participants' mean knowledge score of BC warning signs differs before using BrAware (mean 70.62, SD 11.74) and after using the BrAware app (mean 79.83, SD 10.15) at the <0.001 level of significance.ConclusionsThe BrAware mobile app had a positive effect in increasing the women's knowledge of risk factors of BC, warning signs awareness and confidence level for BSE. It can be concluded that the mobile app may be an adjunct in educating women on BC.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.951641/fullmobile phone appsbreast cancerearly detection of breast cancerbreast self-examinationknowledgeawareness |
spellingShingle | Azlina Yusuf Yulita Hanum P. Iskandar Imi Sairi Ab Hadi Arryana Nasution Soon Lean Keng Breast awareness mobile apps for health education and promotion for breast cancer Frontiers in Public Health mobile phone apps breast cancer early detection of breast cancer breast self-examination knowledge awareness |
title | Breast awareness mobile apps for health education and promotion for breast cancer |
title_full | Breast awareness mobile apps for health education and promotion for breast cancer |
title_fullStr | Breast awareness mobile apps for health education and promotion for breast cancer |
title_full_unstemmed | Breast awareness mobile apps for health education and promotion for breast cancer |
title_short | Breast awareness mobile apps for health education and promotion for breast cancer |
title_sort | breast awareness mobile apps for health education and promotion for breast cancer |
topic | mobile phone apps breast cancer early detection of breast cancer breast self-examination knowledge awareness |
url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.951641/full |
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