DATA ON HEALTH BELIEF MODEL AND BEHAVIOURAL PRACTICE OF WOMEN TOWARDS BREAST CANCER SCREENING IN LAGOS, NIGERIA

The burden of breast cancer is high with huge effect on lives, families and communities. The disease has been noted to be a leading cause of death among women globally. The World Health Organisation has estimated that 2.3 million women have been infected globally and 650,000 mortality rate [1]. Though, incidence in the African region was lower than other continents except for Asia, its age-standardized mortality rate has been ranked highest worldwide with Nigeria, having the highest mortality rate [2].
Although, studies on the degree of knowledge and awareness of breast cancer in the late 1980s and early 1990s found that most women are unaware of the condition, particularly its risk factors and treatment options[3], however, recent studies have revealed a rise in breast cancer awareness behavioural practice, particularly among women in more industrialized cultures [4]. The same cannot be accurate for women in developing nations, particularly those in Africa's Sub-Saharan area, where behavioral practices towards breast cancer screening are still poor [5, 6]. Adherence to breast cancer screening options is therefore connected to an individual’s belief. However, for an individual to adopt a particular behavior as postulated by the health belief model, such individual must feel endangered by his/her current behaviours ; must perceive the specific benefits (value-adding outcome) from a change of behavior; and must feel his or her competency to implementing the recommended change [7-9]. HBM, therefore, seeks to find out whether they (women): believe they are at an increased risk of having BC (perceived susceptibility); their belief of how severe the risk is, considering its physical, mental, and social effect (perceived severity); believe in diagnostic and preventive actions (perceived benefits); believe in their conviction to execute behavioural action being advocated (self-efficacy), whether their behavioural decision making process is triggered by stimulus (cues to action). The dataset (table 1-6) is on how Health Belief Model influences Breast Cancer Screening behaviours of residents of Lagos State, Nigeria. The Likert scale is represented as: Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Undecided (U), Disagree (D), and Strongly Disagree (SD).

乳腺癌的负担沉重，对个人生活、家庭及社区产生了巨大影响。该疾病已被确认为全球女性死亡的主要原因。世界卫生组织估计，全球已有230万名女性感染，死亡率为65万[1]。尽管如此，非洲地区的发病率低于除亚洲以外的其他大陆，但其年龄标准化死亡率在全球范围内位居首位，其中尼日利亚的死亡率最高[2]。然而，尽管在20世纪80年代末和90年代初的研究表明，大多数女性对该疾病及其风险因素和治疗方案缺乏了解[3]，但近期研究却揭示了乳腺癌意识行为实践的上升，尤其是在更加工业化的文化中的女性中[4]。然而，对于发展中国家，尤其是非洲撒哈拉以南地区的女性来说，这一情况并不适用，她们对乳腺癌筛查的行为实践仍然不尽人意[5, 6]。因此，对乳腺癌筛查选项的依从性与个人的信念密切相关。然而，根据健康信念模型，一个人若要采纳某种特定行为，则必须感到其当前行为存在风险；必须认识到行为改变带来的具体益处（增值结果）；并且必须感到自己有能力实施推荐的行为改变[7-9]。因此，健康信念模型旨在探究女性是否：相信她们患乳腺癌的风险增加（感知易感性）；相信其对风险严重性的认识，包括其生理、心理和社会影响（感知严重性）；相信诊断和预防措施（感知益处）；相信其执行被倡导的行为的信念（自我效能感），以及其行为决策过程是否受到刺激（行动线索）。该数据集（表1-6）探讨了健康信念模型如何影响尼日利亚拉各斯州居民进行乳腺癌筛查的行为。李克特量表表示为：强烈同意（SA）、同意（A）、未决定（U）、不同意（D）和强烈不同意（SD）。