Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the level of awareness, regarding the importance of breast self examination (BSE), clinical breast examination (CBE) and mammography, and the effects of education on these issues among patients who applied to family medicine outpatient clinic for follow-up or treatment purposes.

Methods: This study was done by establishing a questionnaire form, after review of necessary litetarure, to be applied in patients who applied for follow-up or treatment in a district polyclinic affiliated to the department of family medicine of a tertiary care center in Ankara.

Results: A total of 434 women aged between 18-56 years participated in the study. The mean age of the participants was 36.62±9,21 years. Although 258 (59.4%) of the participants reported that they performed BSE. 176 participants (40.6%) stated that they did not perform a BSE. The 38.2% of the participants have undergone a CBE and the 24 % of women expressed that they underwent a mammography.The frequency of BSE, CBE and undergoing mammography has been shown to increase significantly as education level increases. The rates of having a CBE and a mammography were also found to be statistically significantly higher in patients who had a family member with breast cancer.

Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that the level of education was important for awareness on the early diagnosis of breast cancer. Thanks to efforts to increase educational level, we can get promising achievements regarding the awareness of both BSE, CBE and mammography performances.

Keywords: Breast self examination, Clinical breast examination, Breast cancer