Barriers Associated with Presentation Delay among Breast Cancer Patients at Hawassa University Comprehensive and Specialized Hospital, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer remains the most common cancer and most common cause of cancer-related mortality among women worldwide. Objectives: The main purpose of this study is to assess barriers resulting in delayed patient presentation to breast cancer care among breast cancer patients under treatment at Hawassa university comprehensive specialized hospital. This study is the first conducted in the study area. Methods: A hospital-based descriptive cross-sectional study design was done from 1 Jun-30 December 2017 to answer the study objectives. All delayed 106 women under breast cancer treatment during data collection period were participated in the study. Structured data collection tool which encompass possible barriers in developing countries were applied to collect data from each study subject. Before the data collection, written ethical clearance letter was obtained from IRB of Hawassa university. Data entry was done using EPI Info 3.5.4 and exported to SPSS version 20.0 software package for analysis. Results: This study revealed that delay was multi-factorial. Of 106 delayed women to breast cancer care, (98.1%) didn't have knowledge about sign and symptom of breast cancer; (71.7%) were thinking the breast cancer lump was not dangerous enough to consult expert health professionals and (64.2%) using alternative medicines like prayer, herbal remedy or traditional healers. There was no significant statistical association found with major causes of delay and socio-demographic characteristics of the women. Conclusion: A significant percentage of women with breast cancer in Hawassa and nearby are experiencing presentation delay due socio-cultural, economic and health and health related causes. Hence, an intense and focused awareness campaign about breast cancer is needed to educate the general population by Ethiopian cancer association, Federal ministry of health, regional health offices any other concerned body.

Socio-cultural and Economic Determinants of Delayed Reporting of Breast Cancer Among Ghanaian Women: A Qualitative Study

“…This finding could be explained by the close social ties and the extended family system being practised in Ghana. Similar findings have been reported previously in Ghana, Mali and Ethiopia where social networks played a significant role in determining the timing and choices of treatment among breast cancer patients (Aziato & Clegg-Lamptey, 2015;Freitas & Weller, 2015;Jemebere, 2019).…”

Routes to diagnosis of symptomatic cancer in sub-Saharan Africa: systematic review

“…The characteristics of included studies are illustrated in table 2, with the results of quality assessment in table 3. Seven of the studies were conducted in Nigeria, [19][20][21][22][23][24][25] three in Ethiopia, [26][27][28] two each in Ghana 29 30 and South Africa, 31 32 and one each in Cameroon, 33 Tanzania 34 and Kenya. 35 The final study involved five countries (Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Cameroon and Nigeria).…”

Epidemiological Trends of Breast Cancer in Southern Ethiopia: A Seven-Year Retrospective Review

“…This result is consistent with studies conducted in Ethiopia and other developing countries. 22,23 The limitation of this study was difficult to measure the treatment outcome of the patients. This is due to the absence of genetic tests such as BRCA 1 and BARCA2, ER, PR, HER2, and Ki67 in the study setting.…”

“…This result is consistent with studies conducted in Ethiopia and other developing countries. 22 , 23 …”

“…This is consistent with the survey conducted in Ethiopia. 22 Modified radical mastectomy (MRM) was the type of surgical treatment for all women with Stage 1 to 3 breast cancer. This is because of the lack of radiotherapy and women are coming at a relatively advanced stage of breast cancer.…”