Association between personal characteristics and health beliefs with pre-mammography anxiety in women referred to mammography centers

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women which is potentially fatal in the case of no early diagnosed and no effective treatment. The role of beliefs in screening behavior is very useful to control disease. Therefore, this study was performed with aim to determine the relationship between personal characteristics and health beliefs with anxiety before mammographyin women referred to mammography centers. Methods: This descriptive study was performed in 2010 on 120 women referred to two mammography centers in Ahvaz. The subjects were selected by convenience sampling and they asked to three questionnaires of demographic and clinical characteristics, health beliefs and situational anxiety. Data was analyzed by SPSS software (version 18), and descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, absolute and relative frequency) and inferential statistics of Pearson correlation and linear regression. P