Our findings support the validity of women’s responses in this
study, as behavioural theories predict that (1) interventions will
affect the middle of a distribution before the extremes and that
(2) the amount of change will be moderate. One lesson is that
interventions may be most effective if targeted particularly
towards those with less strong feelings about the most common
barriers. Another lesson is that the intervention may need to
emphasize mastery of doing one’s own breast examination.
Hands-on teaching that includes practice, such as the Mammacare
technique for BSE, is an effective way to increase the sense of
mastery. Our results suggest that even one educational session,
augmented by take-home informational materials and very brief
quarterly contacts, can suffice.