Hamida Almeldien¹, HebaM. Mohamed¹, Shimaa A. Khalaf^2,, Walaa H. Abdalfatah²

Breast Self-Examination (BSE) has a greatest role in the early discovery of breast cancer and it is still an important screening tool for early detection of Breast Cancer (BC) in developing countries. The study aimed to: Assess the impact of training program on improving knowledge and practices of rural community health workers regarding BC and BSE. Subjects and Methods: Design: Quasi-experimental research design. Sample: A total of 74 rural community health workers recruited in this study. Tools of the study: Two tools used; Tool (I): Self-administrated questionnaire; which divided into two parts, Part (1): Included participants’ personal data, Part (2): Included questions to assess knowledge about BC and BSE. Tool (II): BSE performance checklist. Results: The participants were aged less than 20 years with university education (54.1% and 51.4% respectively); 73% of them were from rural area and 13.5% had family history of BC. There were highly statistical significant differences between total score of knowledge and practice during the three phases of the study pre, post and follow-up test p-values 0.000. Conclusion: A remarkable improvement was noticed in the participants' level of knowledge and practices during the posttest and after three months of follow-up. Recommendation: Establishment of ongoing training intervention to increase rural community health workers’ confidence and skills for teaching preventive health behaviors including BSE to larger society.

BC, BSE, rural community, health workers, training program