Selda Secginli

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in Turkish women, and the use of breast self-examination (BSE) and mammography remains low in Turkey. Therefore, we need to identify the beliefs, influencing BSE and mammography, and a valid and reliable tool to measure constructs. The Champion's health belief model scale (CHBMS) is a valid and reliable tool to measure beliefs about breast cancer, BSE, and mammography in an English culture. The purpose of this study was to assess the psychometric characteristics of a Turkish version of the CHBMS related to breast cancer, BSE, and mammography. A convenience sample of 656 women was recruited from 3 health centers and 2 maternal and child health centers in Istanbul. The CHBMS was translated to Turkish, validated by professional judges, back translated, and tested. Factor analysis yielded 7 factors for BSE: confidence, seriousness, barriers-BSE, health motivation 1 and 2, susceptibility, and benefits-BSE. For mammography scale, 6 factors were identified: seriousness, benefits-mammography, barriers-mammography, health motivation 1 and 2, and susceptibility. All items on each factor were from the same construct. Cronbach alpha reliability coefficients ranged from .75 to .87 for the subscales. The Turkish version of the CHBMS showed adequate reliability and validity for use in Turkish women. It could easily be used to evaluate the health beliefs about breast cancer, BSE, and mammography. Further refinement is required to study Turkish women's health beliefs and breast cancer screening behaviors in various settings.