Mammogram uptake and barriers among Palestinian women attending primary health care in North Palestine

Abstract

Background

Breast cancer affects women's lives worldwide, yet early detection is an effective strategy for reducing mortality. The participation of women in mammography screening is linked to their knowledge, attitudes and perceived barriers.

Objectives

Our study aims to assess mammography screening uptake and barriers among women attending primary healthcare centres (PHCs) in northern Palestine.

Methods

Using an interviewer administered questionnaire, we used a cross-sectional study design to determine mammography screening uptake, knowledge and barriers among 357 women attending PHCs in Northern Palestine between December 2018 and March 2019.

Results

The mean age was 50 years. The majority (69.2%) were considered to have adequate knowledge about breast cancer and mammography screening. Mammography screening uptake among the participants was 37%. Almost 85% of the women had a positive attitude towards breastfeeding as a prophylaxis factor against breast cancer, while the most frequent barrier to mammography screening was that the participants believed they did not have any symptoms (28.6%), followed by 22.1% of them who did not want to know if they had breast cancer.

Conclusion

The findings of this study highlighted the low mammography uptake among Palestinian women despite the adequate knowledge of those women and the fully accessible and free screening programme. Hence, interventional strategies should be implemented at several levels to enhance mammogram uptake.

Keywords:

• Screening uptake
• mammography
• breast screening
• barriers
• breast cancer

Acknowledgements

The authors are very grateful to the Palestinian Ministry of Health for their assistance in distributing and collecting questionnaires and thank the women attending primary care in northern Palestine for responding to our questions.

Ethical approval

This study was performed following the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of An-Najah National University (No. 8 Nov 2018).

Consent to participate

All subjects involved in the research were invited to participate voluntarily after the study's purpose, as well as the risk and the benefit of participation were explained. Informed consent obtained from all individual participants is included in the study.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.