Background: Breast cancer, is the most common cancer both in developed and developing
regions and it present the second most common malignancy amongst women. Aim: The aim of
the present study is to evaluate the effect of a health education program about breast cancer and
breast self examination on knowledge and practices of female employees in Port Said University.
Subject and Methods: The quasi experimental research design was conducted on all female
employees (no=160)from four faculties of the Port Said university selected randomly, an
educational health program about early detection of breast cancer and breast self examination was
developed by researchers, the selected female is tested before and after giving the health program
using a self administered questionnaire and observational checklist. Results:
The findings
revealed that most of the studied sample had unsatisfactory knowledge
about breast
cancer(80.0%) and all of them unsatisfactory practices (100.0%) regarding early detection of
breast cancer and breast self examination in pre program, A statistically significant improvement
was detected in the knowledge and practices post program (P <0.001*). Conclusion: The study
concluded to the fact that the studied females employees' knowledge and practices regarding early
detection of breast cancer and breast self examination are deficient, health educational programs
improved their knowledge and practices, so the researchers recommend that great efforts should
be done to increase the employees females' awareness of prevention and early detection of breast
cancer, this can be effectively done through continues health educational programs.