The prevalence and predictive factors of breast cancer screening among older Ghanaian women

Akosua F Agyemang; Agnes Naki Tei-Muno; Veronica Millicent Dzomeku; Emmanuel Kweku Nakua; Precious Adade Duodu; Henry Ofori Duah; Anna Boakyewaa Bentil; Pascal Agbadi

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03838

The prevalence and predictive factors of breast cancer screening among older Ghanaian women

Heliyon. 2020 Apr 27;6(4):e03838. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03838. eCollection 2020 Apr.

Authors

Akosua F Agyemang¹, Agnes Naki Tei-Muno², Veronica Millicent Dzomeku³, Emmanuel Kweku Nakua⁴, Precious Adade Duodu³, Henry Ofori Duah⁵, Anna Boakyewaa Bentil², Pascal Agbadi³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Social Work, University of Ghana, P.O. Box LG 419, Ghana.
² Methodist University College Ghana, Department of Social Sciences, Social Work Unit, P.O. Box DC 940, Dansoman Accra, Ghana.
³ Department of Nursing, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, College of Health Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
⁴ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
⁵ Research Department, Foundation of Orthopaedic and Complex Spine Hospital, Accra, Ghana.

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer cases are on the rise in Ghana, with older adult women being more at risk of the disease. However, there is a paucity of current studies on factors that predict breast cancer screening among older adult women using nationally representative data. The present study, therefore, addressed this gap by estimating the prevalence of and identifying the factors that predict breast cancer screening among older adult women in Ghana.

Methods: We used the cross-sectional survey dataset of the 2014/2015 (wave II) Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE). A complex survey design methodology was employed to estimate the prevalence of breast cancer screening and the descriptive statistics of the demographic characteristics of the respondents. We used the firth logistic regression for the bivariate and multivariate analysis.

Results: The estimated breast cancer prevalence among older Ghanaian adult women was 4.5%. Older Ghanaian adult women who have screened for cervical cancer [AOR: 13.29; CI: 6.12, 28.84], had attained some primary education [AOR: 3.70; CI: 1.94, 7.07], junior secondary [AOR: 4.02; CI: 1.75, 9.21], senior secondary and higher [AOR: 4.57; CI: 2.15, 9.71], and have ever participated in a club meeting [AOR: 1.85; CI: 1.05, 3.24] were more likely to screen for breast cancer.

Conclusion: The significant predictors of breast cancer screening were cervical cancer screening status, formal education, and participation in club meetings. Given that the prevalence of breast cancer screening among the older adult women in Ghana is low, we recommend that policies and programs dedicated to encouraging women to screen for breast cancer should aim at giving women the opportunity to obtain higher formal education, encouraging women to be actively involved in club meetings and to intensify efforts to encourage women to screen for breast cancer.

Keywords: Aging and life course; Breast cancer screening; Epidemiology; Firth logistic regression; Ghana; Health education; Older adult women; Public health; Women's health.