Efficacy of breast self-examination teaching methods among older women.

Existing breast self-examination (BSE) educational approaches have not been successful in gaining older women's compliance in proficient BSE. The experimental study detailed in this article was designed to determine whether there is a difference in BSE performance between women taught BSE individually using self-modeling in addition to a breast model (experimental group) and women taught BSE in a group using only a breast model (control group). Seventy-nine women, age 50 and older, randomly were assigned to the experimental and the control group. A pretest, a post-test immediately after the instruction, and a second post-test three months later involved BSE specialists observing each woman performing examinations on her own breast and on a breast model. A paired comparisons study yielded a set of weights that was used in calculating performance scores. Repeated measures analysis indicated that women in the experimental group performed BSE significantly more proficiently than women in the control group (F = 3.27, df = 2, 140, p = 0.041).