Socio-demographic determinants of mammography uptake among women 40 years and above in Calabar, South-South, Nigeria: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction mammography has the potential for identifying high risk women with breast cancer. Early detection is important in reducing mortality and morbidity, and crucial for better prognosis. Mammography is poorly practiced in Nigeria. This study assessed the association between socio-demographic characteristics and uptake of mammography among women ≥40 years. Methods a cross-sectional descriptive study design was employed and data was collected from 365 consenting participants in Calabar, Nigeria, using pre-tested questionnaire. SPSS Version 20 was used for data entry and analysis. The results were descriptively presented by frequencies and percentages. Pearson Chi-Square (χ 2 ) analysis was performed to detect the association between variables at 5% level of significance (p-value of ≤0.05). Results only 9.9% of participants had a mammography, majority 90.1% never had. Uptake was highest among respondents with tertiary education, married, Civil/Public Servants, and those in the high income level categorization. Educational status, marital status, occupation and age were not statistically significantly associated with mammography uptake (p>0.05). Only religious denominational affiliation (p = 0.02) and income level (p = 0.002) were statistically significantly associated with uptake. Barriers to uptake were poor knowledge about mammography (49.8%), psychosocial (37.8%), economic (17.1%) and health systems (11.5%). Key facilitators to uptake were encouragement/counselling by health workers (44.0%) and presence of breast problems (37.4%). Conclusion mammography uptake in Calabar, Nigeria was extremely low. Therefore, regular awareness campaigns targeting women at faith-based settings, and provision of mammography screening services at subsidized rates will enhance knowledge level and uptake of mammography.

Perceived barriers and factors influencing uptake of breast cancer screening among women: a population-based cross-sectional study

“…The uptake of BC screening of 35.3% obtained in this study was similar to the 33.8% uptake of BC screening which was reported in a study done by Emma et al in Tanzania 18 but lower than 51.9% of uptake of BC screening reported in Ghana 4 . However, other studies done in Indonesia, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia reported significantly low levels of uptake of BC screening 18.7% 15 , 9.9% 21 , 16.2% 22 , respectively. Despite Ghana and Tanzania being low-middle income countries, the prevalence of modern FP use in Ghana was associated with the difference in the age of study participants, the Ghanaian study included the population of young reproductive age, such women are more likely to have more knowledge.…”

“…One of the reasons for the discrepancy in the uptake rates for BC screening observed in various studies is due to the difference in methods of BC screening used, for example, studies which used a single method of BC screening, particularly mammography have reported significantly low rate of uptake of BC screening 21 , this may be explained by the fact that the coverage of the availability of mammography in most of developing countries www.nature.com/scientificreports/ is still a challenge which prompts utilization of other methods of BC screening. The disproportion of awareness of BC and uptake of BC screening observed in different studies helps to explain the existing discrepancy in the uptake rates of BC screening in various studies.…”