Self-Exam of Health and Breast Cancer in Women from a City in Southern Brazil

Abstract

Introduction: Self-exam of health represents important predictor of morbidity and mortality. Objective: To assess the frequency of negative self-exam of health and associated factors in women with breast cancer treated by a reference service in Southern Brazil, controls of the neighborhood and Health Unit. Method: Analysis performed from a casecontrol study, in which women with breast cancer, who discovered the disease between the years 2000 to 2007, were selected. For each case, a control of the neighborhood and a control of the health unit were selected. The association between the outcome and other variables was investigated by means of the odds ratios (OR) and confidence intervals of 95% (95% CI), by means of a multivariate analysis of non-conditional logistic regression, stratified for each one of the three groups investigated. Results: 170 women with breast cancer were evaluated, and the same number for each type of control. The frequency of negative self-exam of health among the cases (38.8%) was lower than that observed among the controls of the Health Unit (61.2%) and, similar to controls in the neighborhood (41.2%). We observed marked differences in direction and magnitude of the association of variables with outcome for both groups. For the cases, socioeconomic (older age, income and education) and psychosocial (social support) variables were more important. Among the controls, we can highlight behaviors related to health, adoption of preventive measures and variables related to health status. Conclusion: Disease and socioeconomic status influenced factors associated with self-exam of health.