Abstract
Breast cancer appears to be a significant disease of both the developing and developed countries. Cancer screening tests such as mammography play a pivotal role in reducing breast cancer related mortalities. The aim of this literature review is to present cultural factors that affect mammography screening. A literature search of six electronic databases (Wiley, Medline, Springer Link, Ovid, EBSCOhost and PubMed) was conducted using the terms breast cancer, mammography, culture, and nursing. Articles published in English and Turkish, from January 2009 to April 2014, were searched. We found 155 literatures, but 50 literatures were related with our topics, and 15 of them are fulltext. According to results, nurses need to understand the reasons behind why women don't practice mammography, especially cultural factors. A number of health beliefs and socio demographic and cultural characteristics have been associated with mammogram participation among women. However, studies systematically investigating cultural factors in relation to mammogram experience have been scarce around Turkey and some countries. While rates of participating mammogram show differences in terms of rural and urban areas in Turkey, rates show differences in terms of age in Jordan. Nurses are important persons to increase the rates of mammogram participating and they must know cultural factors of women. Nurses should consider the inclusion in culturally variety interventions of more targeted out reach since mammography is very important for early diagnosis of breast cancer.