‘Turkish women not prepared for cancer’

ISTANBUL

60 percent of women in Turkey do not take any precautions to reduce the risk of getting cancer, the report says. Hürriyet photo

More than 40 percent of Turkish women are diagnosed with breast cancer or have relatives who have been diagnosed with cancer, yet more than half do not take any precautions, according to recent research.

While cancer awareness among Turkish women is high, 60 percent of the country’s women do not take any precautions to reduce the risk of getting cancer, such as going for regular doctor checkups, according to the “Women’s Health in Turkey Report” from Philips Turkey.

According to the report, one in three Turkish women has never been to a gynecologist before.
At the same time, more than half are pleased with their health of state; contrastingly, a similar percentage also said they found the country’s healthcare system insufficient.

Numbers doubled

World Health Organization (WHO) statistics show that the number of cancer patients has doubled in Turkey in the last 20 years, according to Willem Rozenberg, the chairman of Philips Turkey.

Rozenberg said some academics and officials from the Health Ministry held a closed-door meeting on Jan. 10 to discuss the report. The need for a national action plan was emphasized in the meeting, Rozenberg added.

“Women are in charge of the family’s health in Turkish society; that’s why our main target is the women,” Harika Gündem, the Central Eastern Europe senior marketing coordinator at Philips Healthcare, told the Hürriyet Daily News.

The report was prepared after a survey among participants in 12 provinces. More than 400 women between the ages of 18 and 70 were interviewed.