Rea-Jeng Yang
National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Taiwan
Title: Effects of an educational program on BSE competency: A quasi-experimental study
Biography
Biography: Rea-Jeng Yang
Abstract
Background: Breast cancer is a leading killer of Taiwanese women. The aim of this study was to investigate the net effects of innovative community-wide breast self-examination (BSE) program that we designed and administered to promote Taiwanese women’s BSE competence. Methods: A quasi-experimental pretest and posttest were conducted on 203 women participants aged 50 or less. The data collected was direct measurement of the examinees’ BSE performance. Results: At a four-month follow-up after training, the experimental group mean scores of outcome measures were all of significantly higher than those of the control group (all ps＜.001). An average of BSE monthly frequency was 0.7 versus 0.4, proficiency of BSE was 91.3% versus 16.6%, sensitivity was 70.0% versus 20.0%, and positive predictive value (PPV) was 92.8% versus 18.6%. The coefficient shows the effect of treatment, those women in the experimental group comparison to the control group: frequency increase by 105% (e0.72-1=1.05), sensitivity increase by 249% (e1.25-1=2.49), PPV increase by 371% (e1.55-1=3.71), and proficiency increase by 74.5%; all of above remove of the potential confounders in the model. Conclusions: This study has yielded valuable information about the net effects of an experimental BSE instruction program on competency. The results indicate that the treatment, as administered, had strong, positive, and significant effects on BSE behavior in terms of practice and accuracy. Worthy of special note is that BSE teaching can be highly effective if it involves model breasts as a necessary auxiliary aid to self-examination practice.