Abstract—Breast cancer is considered as a substantial health concern and practicing mammography screening [MS] is important in minimizing its related morbidity. So it is essential to have a better understanding of breast cancer screening behaviors of women and factors that influence utilization of them. The aim of this study is to identify the factors that are linked to MS behaviors among the Egyptian women. A cross-sectional descriptive design was carried out to provide a snapshot of the factors that are linked to MS behaviors. A convenience sample of 311 women was utilized and all eligible participants admitted to the Women Imaging Unit who are 40 years of age or above, coming for mammography assessment, not pregnant or breast feeding and who accepted to participate in the study were included. A structured questionnaire was developed by the researchers and contains three parts; Socio-demographic data; Motivating factors associated with MS; and association between MS and model of behavior change. The analyzed data indicated that most of the participated women (66.6%) belonged to the age group of 40- 49.A high proportion of participants (58.1%) of group having previous MS influenced by their neighbors to practice MS, whereas 32.7 % in group not having previous MS were influenced by family members which indicated significant differences (P <0.05). Doctors and media shown to be the least influence of others to practice MS. Women with intention to have a future mammogram had higher OR (1.404) for practicing MS compared with women with no intention. Further studies are needed to examine the relation between Trans- theoretical Model [TTM] and practicing MS. Keywords—Breast cancer, mammography, screening behaviors. I. INTRODUCTION REAST cancer incidence is increasing in parallel with rising mortality in some countries and declining in others [1]. In 2008 nearly 1.4 million cases of breast cancer were detected across the world. This represents 11% of all new cancer cases and 23% of all female cancers. It was estimated that the number of cases with breast cancer will rise to 2.1 million by 2030 [2]. In 2005 statistical figures in Egypt showed that breast Dr. Salwa Hagag Abdelaziz, Lecturer of Medical Surgical Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Cairo University, Egypt (phone: 0020227636790, 00966561409281; e-mail: nadakimo@yahoo.com), Dr. Naglaa Fathy Youssef, Lecturer of Medical Surgical Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Cairo University, Egypt (phone: 002-01149495552; e-mail: youssef_naglaa@yahoo.com). Dr. Nadia AbdelLatif Hassan, Lecturer of Community Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Cairo University, Egypt (phone: 002-0165573183; e-mail: dr.nadiahassan@yahoo.com@yahoo.com). Dr. Rasha Wesam Abdel Rahman, Lecturer of Radiognosis, Women Imaging Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt (phone: 002- 01000 2541 2 4; e-mail: Rashakao @yahoo.com). cancer represents 35.1% of all females’ cancer [3]. This gave alarm to the Egyptian Ministry of Health to announce the first Egyptian National screening program ''Women Health Outreach Program" (WHOP) on October 30 th , 2007 to February 9 th 2009 that offers free mammography for all Egyptian Women above 45 years and positively detected cases are offered the option of free management [1]. Although WHOP has become available for every woman in Egypt, the incidence of breast cancer is still increasing. In 2013, breast cancer increased to be 37% of all female cancers. So incidence in terms of crude incidence and age standardized rate relatively high for a low income country (37.6/100,000 and 49.6/100,000 respectively) [4]. This could be due to detection of breast cancer at an advanced stage as more that 80-90% of cases present with stage three and four. It also could be due to the lack of women’s awareness to seek medical attention and early MS [1]. A. Breast Cancer Screening Rates In relation to the breast cancer-screening rates, American study was carried out in 2010 and showed that the rate of mammography uptake was 72.8% in the previous 2 years among women aged 50-74 years [5]. In addition, another study conducted in Europe and indicated that the rate of MS was 84.1% over the previous 2 years among women aged 50-69 years. Within Egypt little is known about the factors that influence MS behaviors and screening rates among women. One study was conducted on a small sample of Egyptian women, has reported that the rate of performing mammogram was 12.5% [4]. Thus Egyptian women have a significantly lower mammography rate than those in the United States and Europe. B. Definition of Breast Cancer Screening Behaviors Breast cancer screening behaviors are defined as health improvement activities, such as breast self-examination (BSE), mammography and clinical breast examination (CBE), which can facilitate early detection of breast cancer [6]. Although BSE is an economical, simple and non-invasive screening modality for early detection of breast cancer, Turkish Association for Cancer Control 2005 has reported that BSE alone is not an effective method for detecting breast cancer. So, the more objective and effective screening method for early detection of breast cancer is mammography [7]. Factors Associated with Mammography Screening Behaviors: A Cross-Sectional Descriptive Study of Egyptian Women Salwa Hagag Abdelaziz, Naglaa Fathy Youssef, Nadia Abdel Latif Hassan, Rasha Wesam Abdel Rahman B World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Medical, Health, Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Engineering Vol:9, No:5, 2015 367 International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 9(5) 2015 International Science Index Vol:9, No:5, 2015 waset.org/Publication/10001368