Factors influencing the uptake of cervical cancer screening services in Tanzania: A health system perspective from national and district levels

Abstract

AimThis study aimed at examining factors influencing uptake of cervical cancer screening services among women in Tanzania.DesignExploratory qualitative study.MethodsIn‐depth interviews were used to obtain information from 10 key Informants. Of these, three were officials (policy makers) from the Reproductive Health‐Cancer Unit of Ministry of Health and Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children (MoHCDGEC), three were health managers working at Kinondoni Municipal health system reproductive and child health section and four were health workers from the Ocean Road Cancer Institute (ORCI). The study participants were purposively selected since they hold the responsibility of planning, coordinating and implementing the Tanzania cervical cancer prevention strategies at different levels of health system. The qualitative data analysis was done manually using thematic analysis.ResultsThe national health system factors influencing the early uptake of cervical cancer screening services include poor flow of information from national to lower level and inadequate availability of tools and instruments and shortage of skilled and competent staff. The district level health systems factors influencing uptake of cervical cancer screening services include inadequate number of partners, poor flow of information, poor collaboration with the private sector, no adequate provision of cervical cancer screening services due to lack of prioritization, poor creation of awareness and failure to use the health information system effectively.

Factors Associated with Intention to Utilize Cervical Cancer Prevention Strategies among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Clinics in Ibadan, Nigeria

“…Similarly, some authors identified that 30.4% of the respondents had not undergone cervical cancer screening because of fear of the screening procedure [26], which also significantly affected screening in this study. The findings from the study of [27] show that curative services were more prioritized over preventive services when the planning and allocation of resources from the national to the district level, which also affects utilization of preventive services even though not recognized in this study.…”

Perceptions of key informants on the provision of cervical cancer prevention and control programme in Uganda: implication for cervical cancer policy

“…Cervical cancer is not regarded as a priority disease and as such there is no budget to support implementation of activities related to prevention and controls. Other studies have reported lack of government funding and a high prevalence of NGO funding of cervical cancer programmes in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania [41,58,59]. Through community advocacy, the participants of this study believed that cervical cancer would gain government attention and this will enable improvement in funding allocation to implement prevention and control services in the community.…”

Utilization of cervical cancer screening service and associated factors among women of reproductive age group in Ilu Abba Bor zone, southwestern Ethiopia, 2019: Cross-sectional study

“…This finding was consistent with the result of a study done in Dare Salam, which indicated that the national health system factors influencing the early uptake of cervical cancer screening services include poor flow of information from national to lower level. 23 …”