Hello Trish, I'm replying re: your e-mail regarding evidence for breast
self-exam and testicular self-exam, with some review-level evidence
found on health-evidence.ca. Health-evidence.ca is a freely-accessible
online registry of systematic reviews that address what is effective in
public health. All reviews have been screened for relevance to public
health and have been quality assessed by two reviewers, with an overall
rating of weak, moderate, or strong quality. This makes it easier to use
review-level evidence, since it is a synthesis of the primary studies in
any given
area. Where good quality reviews exist, it may be more efficient to use
review-level evidence as opposed to searching for and collating single
studies. The methods used to search, screen, and appraise quality are
described on the site.
A number of reviews referenced on the site (links below) may shed some
light on your question re: best age to address self-exam in a school
setting in the body of the review, however they do not focus on
self-exam in the school setting only (although the testicular self-exam
review does include something related to schools), nor are
they targeted only at school-age populations. It is possible that they
may be the 'best available' review-level evidence and may make some
recommendations related to age-appropriateness or suggest a starting age
for screening programs in schools.
Related to breast self-exam, there are four reviews on
health-evidence.ca - 1 of strong quality and 3 others of moderate
quality. There are a number of others that include mammography but some
focus on older women only and so I am highlighting these four which
focus specifically on BSE:
Reference List
Baxter, N. & Canadian Task Force on Preventative Health Care (2001).
Preventative health care, 2001 update: Should women be routinely taught
breast self-examination to screen for breast cancer? CMAJ: Canadian
Medical Association Journal, 164, 1837-1846.
Hackshaw, A. K. & Paul, E. A. (2003). Breast self-examination and death
from breast cancer: A meta-analysis. British Journal of Cancer, 88,
1047-1053.
Janz, N. K., Becker, M. H., Anderson, L. A., & Marcoux, B. C. (1989).
Interventions to enhance breast self-examination practice: A review.
Public Health Reviews, 17, 89-163.
O'Mallary, M. S. & Fletcher, S. W. (1987). Screening for breast cancer
with breast self-examination: A critical review. JAMA: Journal of the
American Medical Association, 257, 2196-2203.
Health-evidence.ca has only one moderate-quality review related to
testicular self-exam, but it is keyworded to include schools, so it may
include an individual study or studies on testicular screening in a
school setting, or may make relevant recommendations:
Robertson, L., Douglas, F., Ludbrook, A., Reid, G., van Teijlingen, E.
(2008). What works with men? A systematic review of health promoting
interventions targeting men, BMC Health Services Research, 8, 141.
I hope this evidence is of some use. Feel free to reply with any
questions or let me know if you experience any difficulty using the
site. Please note that I am not a list subscriber, but another list
member brought this to my attention so I thought I'd reply and if you
want to reach me, my direct e-mail address is below. Thanks!
Kara
Kara DeCorby, MSc
Project Coordinator, health-evidence.ca
School of Nursing, McMaster University
1685 Main Street West, Unit 302
Hamilton, ON L8S 1G5
Tel: (905) 525-9140 ext. 20461
Fax: (905) 529-4184
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
To manage subscriptions/passwords, or view archives, go to http://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/click4hp.html . [log in to unmask] is run in collaboration with Health Nexus: http://www.healthnexus.ca/index_eng.php
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