Article Review: “Attitudes and Health Beliefs Associated With Breast Cancer Screening Behaviors Among Turkish Women”
The title ‘Attitudes and health beliefs associated with breast cancer screening behaviors among Turkish women’ seems fit for the article because it clearly and concisely indicates the key element of the study. From the title, a reader can understand that this article will explore the health norms and attitudes of Turkish women about breast cancer screening approaches. However, the title does not include the population sample considered for the study. Actually, the population sample was comprised of 1,342 Turkish women but it was not mentioned in the title. In total, the title is sufficient enough to give readers a clear understanding of the goal of this article.
Abstract
The abstract included in the paper provides a concise summary of the study. The abstract does not include either a problem statement or hypothesis. However, it includes a purpose which is stated as “this research was undertaken to determine the attitudes and health beliefs of a sample of Turkish women about breast self-examination (BSE), clinical breast examination, and mammography” (Gürsoy, Mumcu, Çalik, Bulut, Nural, Kahriman, et al., 2011). It seems that the abstract briefly summarizes the design, methodology, results, and conclusions of the study. To illustrate, the abstract says that a population sample of 1,342 women was considered for the study. It indicates that researcher-designed questionnaire and the Champion Health Belief Model Scale methodologies were employed to collect data. The abstract also provides a brief statistical summary of Turkish women following different breast cancer screening behaviors to reflect the results of the study. As a brief conclusion, the abstract says that interventions and strategies to improve women’s ability to perform breast cancer detection techniques in turn would help them engage in regular screening for breast cancer. Despite the absence of a problem statement, it seems that the abstract is adequate enough to reflect a brief overview of the article.
This research paper was written by ten authors. Among the ten authors, Ayla Akkas Gursoy was the corresponding author and she is from the Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, Turkey. When it comes to her educational qualification, she has attained a PhD degree her oncology studies. She has expertise in fields such as nursing science, clinical nursing, and oncology. She has authored or co-authored 14 scholarly articles that were published in well-recognized scientific journals (Research Gate). The application of Champion Health Belief Model (CHBM) Scale in this study provides evidence that the authors were qualified enough to conduct this study because CHBM can be effectively employed only by persons who have expertise in nursing science and clinical nursing. In addition, the design and organization of the paper point that the researchers were eligible to perform this work. This article was published in the Journal of Transcultural Nursing, which is a referred journal.
Theoretical Framework/conceptual Framework
The paper contains a theoretical framework. Health Belief Model (HBM) is the theoretical framework used for this study. The data collection tool Champion Health Belief Model (CHBM) Scale was developed from the HBM model. HBM is a psychosocial model that is effective to explain people’s health behaviors. Being developed by a group of psychologists in the 1950s, the HBM attempts to explain “why people would or would not use available preventive services” (Gürsoy, et al., 2011). An underlying principle of this model is that an individual’s health-related behavior may be influenced by his/her perception of the complications of a health problem (Orji, Vassileva & Mandryk, 2012). While evaluating this article, it seems that the research problem flows naturally from the conceptual framework. Although the HBM does not directly address the attributions of cause of breast cancer, it works as a silent framework for explaining breast cancer screening. As said already, the CHBM Scale was developed from this conceptual framework to collect data for the research study. The CHBM is composed of six concepts that are closely linked to the ideas proposed by the HBM model. In short, the transition of this paper from paragraph to paragraph is natural based on the concepts of the HBM model.
Protection of Human Rights
There is no evidence of an independent ethics review by a board (IRB) or a committee. It is identified that this study was designed specifically to minimize risk and maximize benefits the participants. The research study used no techniques or procedures that would cause harm to participants. Likewise, it is obvious that the objective of the study was to identify breast cancer screening behaviors among Turkish women. Undoubtedly, such knowledge can assist health researchers and practitioners to identify the current obstacles to developing best breast cancer screening behaviors in Turkish women and thereby take effective and immediate measures to address the situation. In other words, a deep understanding of why many Turkish women did not follow improved breast cancer screening behaviors would assist health researchers to form sensible intervention strategies so as to respond to the situation in an effective manner. Hence, the research was designed with intent to diagnose breast cancer in Turkish women at the earliest. As a result, this research study was really helpful for majority of those Turkish women who were uninformed of better breast cancer screening behaviors. From the study, it is identified that participants gave voluntary, informed consent to the research team. To support, the research team oversampled the participant population by 50% so as to compensate for women who might choose not to participate in the study. While analyzing the study, it is evident that the participants can be identified and traced easily because the research team relied on cards, which were used to maintain information of every home and its members in Turkey, to collect data.
The problem
Obviously, the purpose of the research was met properly because the research team could properly identify breast cancer screening behaviors among Turkish women effectively. The researchers identified that 10.1% of participants had practiced breast self-examination (BSE), 19.8% had undergone clinical breast examination, and 15% had depended on a mammogram. These statistical figures provide clear insights into the subject matter of the research purpose. Indisputably, the problem addressed in this research was really significant to nursing because a great understanding breast cancer screening behaviors among Turkish women is vital for nurses to develop a well-informed care plan. In addition, this information could be really assistable to frame sensible nursing interventions that would influence the current breast cancer screening behaviors of Turkish women. It is important to see that the purpose of conducting this research has been well explained in the paper. The researchers clearly identified that age and marital status were two significant variables that played a crucial role in determining whether the Turkish women used only one or multiple screening techniques for the early detection of breast cancer. It was not a difficult task for researchers to measures these variables of the participant population. Undoubtedly, an answer to the problem addressed would provide great insights into the clinical applicability of this problem. To justify, an understanding of the percentages of different breast cancer screening techniques used by Turkish women is really helpful for clinicians to emphasize on particularly screening methods.
References
Gürsoy, A. A., Mumcu, H. K., Çalik, K. Y., Bulut, H. K., Nural, N., Kahriman, I. I. et el. (2011). Attitudes and Health Beliefs Associated With Breast Cancer Screening Behaviors Among Turkish Women. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, DOI: 10.1177/1043659611414137
Orji, R., Vassileva, J., & Mandryk, R. (2012). Towards an Effective Health Interventions Design: An Extension of the Health Belief Model. Online Journal of Public Health Informatics, 4(3), ojphi.v4i3.4321. http://doi.org/10.5210/ojphi.v4i3.4321
Research Gate. Ayla Gürsoy. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ayla_Guersoy
