Critical Care Obstetrics and Gynecology

Predictors of Poor Participation in Mammographic Breast Cancer Screening among Women in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

Morbidity and mortality from breast cancer can be reduced if detected early and breast cancer screening is the ultimate strategy for early diagnosis. Understanding the determinants that influence patient’s failure to embrace or participate in preventive care is a prerequisite for strategies to reverse the trend.

Objective: This study was designed to identify the predictors of poor participation in mammographic breast cancer screening in our setting to encourage women to adopt preventive health care measures.

Material and Methods: This was a questionnaire-based descriptive study whose validity was calculated using the Index of item Objective Congruence (IOC). Questionnaire administration and retrieval of responses were physically and electronically done. The entire study lasted for two months (July to August 2020).

Results: Two hundred completed questionnaires were retrieved and analyzed. The mean age of the participants was 39.3 ± 14.6 years. A larger number 60.5% (n=121) of the participants had tertiary education. With regards to the level of the participants’ awareness of breast cancer, a large proportion of 91.5% (n=183) has heard of breast cancer. The majority 67.7% (n=135) of the participants had no family history of breast cancer. A greater number 87.5% (n=175) of the participants have heard of mammography as a breast cancer screening method. Most 41.5% (n=83) of the participants have not undergone mammography examination because none was in their vicinity, followed by those that we're afraid of radiation 28.5% (n=57) and the least 19% (n=18) attributed their reason of not going for mammography to the attitude of the attendants.

Conclusion: In a resource-constrained setting, factors such as education, household income, availability, and affordability of breast cancer screening services are important predictors of participation in breast cancer screening exercises as documented in this study.

Author(s):

AN Mbaba, MP Ogolodom, N Alazigha, R Abam, BU Maduka, ID Jaja, DC Ugwuanyi, VK Nwodo, and AC Okwor

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