The effect of education based on Systematic comprehensive Health Education and Promotion model to Health volunteers on their female clients knowledge regarding breast cancer screening

Background aim: Despite the importance of screening for early diagnosis of breast cancer, few women have adequate knowledge in this regard. This study was performed to determine the effect of education based on comprehensive systematic health education and promotion model (SHEP model) on breast cancer screening knowledge of women referred to Mashhad health centers. Methods: This quasi-experimental study with two groups of trainers and audiences was performed at Ab-o-Bargh and Shahid Najafi Health Centers that were randomly assigned to experimental and control centers. The study subjects were 12 health volunteers and 120 audiences (women referred to the health centers). In the case group, the health volunteers received training based on the SHEP model during two four-hour sessions. The control group received the routine training program. In both centers, ten women were randomly allocated to each health volunteer. The trainers of each group held a two-hour training session for the women covered by the health centers. The women s knowledge was assessed before, as well as immediately and four weeks after the intervention using a self-made questionnaire. To analyze the data, Mann Whitney, Friedman, Chi-squared, and Fisher’s exact tests were run in SPSS, version 20. Results: Before the intervention, mean knowledge scores of the experimental and control groups were 16.52 and 16.53, respectively, which were not significantly different (P 0.05). Immediately and four weeks after the intervention, mean scores of knowledge in the experimental group were significantly higher than in the control group (43.13 and 42.38 vs 23.28 and 22.83; P 0.05). In both groups, there were significant differences in mean scores of knowledge at the three time points of before, immediately after, and four weeks post-intervention, but these disparities were greater in the experimental group compared to the control group. Conclusion: Our outcomes confirmed the effectiveness of training based on SHEP model by matched trainers on women’s short- and long-term knowledge promotion as to breast cancer screening.