Practices for early detection of breast camcer among Muslim women in Southern California

Purpose

Breast cancer (BC) is a serious women's health problem. Its early detection necessitates women to practice breast self-examination (BSE), have clinical breast examination (CBE) and mammogram. Our study aims at exploring BC detection practices of Muslim women in Southern California.

Methods

We collected data from a convenience sample of 226 Muslim women ≥30 years old using a questionnaire in the primary language of the subjects. Among the 226 women, 82% were ≥40 years old, 78% were married, and 20% had family history of BC. The racial/ethnic distribution was 30% Asian, 27% South Asian, 17% Arab, 9% Iranian, 9% African American, and 7% White. One third of the women never practiced BSE and one third had not undergone CBE during the past two years. Among women ≥40 years old, 46% did not have mammogram in the past two years. The data showed that practices for early detection of BC varied by race/ethnicity. Iranians (47%) and Arabs (54%) had the lowest percentage of BSE relative to other groups (p < 0.05). CBE was lower among Iranians (47%) and South Asians (58%) relative to other groups (p < 0.05). Among women ≥40 years old, Iranian (47%), African American (50%) and Arab (54%) reported the lowest prevalence of mammography relative to other groups (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

A significant number of Muslim women in California did not engage in early BC detection practices. Utilization of mammography among women ≥40 years old in our study (54%) was lower than both the national level (70%) and the level for California (75.5%). This difference could be due to differences in culture and/or religion. Further studies are needed to investigate the factors associated with the low utilization of practices for early detection of breast cancer among Muslim women population in California.

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