Need assessment for the content of educational programs about breast cancer from the viewpoint of unaffected women

Sep 24, 2026

Uploaded by moss~

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, and early diagnosis depends on timely medical attention. Many women still have unanswered questions about the disease, its risks, and appropriate prevention or early-detection actions. This prospective qualitative study explored the information needs of unaffected women regarding breast cancer from their own perspective. Participants generated questions for educational programs, which were iteratively categorized and refined by topic and detail.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Trial registration

Keywords

Alipour et al. BMC Women’s Health (2023) 23:92 [https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-023-02238-x](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-023-02238-x) BMC Women’s Health RESEARCH Open Access Need assessment for the content of educational programs about breast cancer from the viewpoint of unaffected women Sadaf Alipour1,2 , Marzieh Orouji3 , Yas Eskandari4 and Amirhossein Eskandari5* Abstract Background Breast cancer is the most common cancer among females, and early diagnosis is possible in case the patients seek medical attention on time. For this to come true, they must know about the existence and risks ofthe disease and be aware of the appropriate attitude and actions toward prevention or early diagnosis. However, we see that women have unanswered questions about these issues. In this study, we sought to investigate healthy women’s information needs about breast cancer from their own perspective. Methods This prospective study was carried out by using the maximum variation sampling, and theoretical saturation to reach sample saturation. Women who came to different clinics of Arash Women’s Hospital (except the Breast Clinic) during two months were entered in the study. Participants were asked to write down all the questions and subjects they would like to be explained in a breast cancer educational program. The questions were reviewed and categorized after every fifteen consecutive forms were filled until there was not even one new question. Afterwards, all the questions were reviewed and matched based on their similarity and repeated items were eliminated. Finally, questions were organized according to their common topics and the range of details they comprised. Results Sixty patients were included in the study, and 194 questions were gathered and categorized according to common scientific terms, resulting in 63 questions in 5 categories. Conclusions Many studies have been conducted on breast cancer education, but none have addressed healthy women’s personal queries. This study outlines the questions of unaffected women about breast cancer that need tobe addressed in educational programs. The results can be used for development of educational material at community level. Trial registration: This study was conducted as the preliminary phase of a study approved in Tehran University of Medical Sciences (Approval Code 99-1-101-46,455) and by the Ethics Committee of the University (Ethical Code IR.TUMS. MEDICINE. REC.1399. 105) . Keywords Breast cancer, Education, Need assessment, Questions, Community *Correspondence: Amirhossein Eskandari [Dr_a_eskandari@yahoo.com](Dr_a_eskandari@yahoo.com) Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ()[. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ()[http://creativeco](http://creativeco)[mmons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/](mmons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)) applies to the data made available i

FAQs

What was the main aim of the study?

To investigate healthy, unaffected women’s information needs about breast cancer from their own perspective for use in educational programs.

How were participants and data collected?

Women attending different clinics at Arash Women’s Hospital (excluding the Breast Clinic) over two months wrote questions and topics they wanted explained in a breast cancer educational program.

How were the questions analyzed and organized?

Questions were reviewed and categorized after every fifteen forms until no new questions emerged, then similar and repeated items were removed and remaining questions were grouped by common topics and level of detail.

Sep 24, 2026

Uploaded by moss~