The effect of women’s breast cancer fear and social support perceptions on the process of participating in screening

Introduction:Social support and fear have been shown to be important factors affecting women’s participation in breast cancer screening. This study aimed to determine the effect of women’s perceived breast cancer fear and social support on participating in the breast cancer screening process, and to investigate the relationship between the perception of breast cancer fear and social support.Methods:This is a descriptive study, carried out in a state hospital on 198 women. The data were collected through a Socio-Demographic Data Form, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), and Breast Cancer Fear Scale (BCFS) by the researchers by means of face-to-face interview.Results:There was no statistically significant difference between the women’s perceptions of social support and breast cancer fear and screening behaviors (p > 0.05). It was found that the mean BCFS score of those who had a family history of breast cancer was high, and the MSPSS score was lower (p < 0.05). There was a quite weak...