Breast health awareness campaign and screening pilot in a Kenyan County: Findings and lessons
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Date
2021-07Author
Mwenda, Valerian
Bor, Joan-Paula
Gitungo, Hannah
Kirika, Lydia
Njoroge, Richard
Mugi, Beatrice
Ojuka, Daniel
Nyangasi, Mary
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
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Background and aim: Breast cancer is the leading cancer in terms of incidence in Kenya. We conducted a breast cancer awareness and screening pilot to assess feasibility of rolling out a national screening program in Kenya.
Methods: Conducted in Nyeri County during October-November 2019, the pilot had three phases; awareness creation, screening (clinical breast examination and/or imaging) and final evaluation (post-screening exit interviews and retrospective screening data review). Descriptive statistics on awareness, screening process and outputs were derived.
Results: During the pilot, 1813 CBE, 217 breast ultrasounds and 600 mammograms were performed. Mammography equipment utilization increased from 11% to 83%. Of 49 women with suspicious lesions on mammography, only 22 (44.9%) had been linked to care 4 months after the campaign. Of 532 exit interview respondents; 95% (505/532) were ≥35 years of age; 80% (426/532) had been reached by the awareness campaign. Majority (75% [399/532]) had received information from community health volunteers; 68% through social groups. Majority (79% [420/532]) felt the campaign had changed their behavior on breast health. Although 77% (407/532) had knowledge on self breast examination (SBE); only 13% practiced monthly SBE. More than half (58% [306/532]) had previously undertaken a CBE. Approximately 70% (375/528) were unaware of mammography before the pilot; 86% (459/532) had never previously undertaken a mammogram. Fifty-five percent (293/532) of respondents had screening waiting times of >120 min.
Conclusion: Community health workers can create breast cancer screening demand sustainably. Adequate personnel and effective follow-up are crucial before national roll-out of a breast cancer screening program.
Citation
Mwenda V, Bor JP, Gitungo H, Kirika L, Njoroge R, Mugi B, Ojuka D, Nyangasi M. Breast health awareness campaign and screening pilot in a Kenyan County: Findings and lessons. Cancer Rep (Hoboken). 2021 Jul 8:e1480. doi: 10.1002/cnr2.1480. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34235881.Publisher
University of Nairobi
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
- Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) [10385]
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