중년기 여성의 암에 대한 지식, 태도 미치 예방적 건강행위

Cancer-related Knowledge, Attitude, and Preventive Health Behavior of Middle-aged Women in Korea

Purpose: The study was done to identify the levels of middle-aged women’s cancer-related knowledge, attitude and preventive health behavior in Korea. Methods: Data were collected from questionnaires of 391 middle-aged women in D metropolitan city in Korea. Measures were cancer-related knowledge, attitude, and preventive health behavior. Data were analyzed using frequencies, means and standard deviation, t-test, ANOV A, Tukey test, Pearson correlation coefficients, and Simple regression with SPSS/WIN 14.0 version. Results: The mean score for cancer-related knowledge of the participants was 3,56, out of a possible 5. There were significant differences in cancer-related knowledge according to average monthly income, education level, occupation, cancer history, family history, and periodic checkup. The mean score for cancer-related attitude of the participants was 4.04, out of a possible 5. The mean score for cancer-related preventive health behavior of the participants was 3.62, out of a possible 5. Cancer-related knowledge correlated positively with attitude, and attitude correlated positively with health preventive behavior. Conclusion: As the middle-aged women’s cancer-related knowledge becomes high, the attitude toward cancer gets more positive. Also the middle-aged women’s attitude toward cancer becomes positive, the performance of preventive health behavior gets better. The factors influencing the middle-aged women’s preventive health performance were the attitude to cancers, the periodic checkup, the occupation, the average monthly income and the cancer history. As there are wide variations of the middle-aged women’s knowledge about six cancers, the strategy in consideration of individual characters is necessary to improve the middle-aged women’s knowledge of six cancers and to perform the preventive health behavior in the future.