Strengthening uptake of Breast Cancer Screening Services in Tanzania; Re-visiting the Breast Cancer Screening Messages

Background Breast Cancer remains among the top five cancers responsible for morbidity and mortality globally. Initially thought to be a disease for women in high income countries due to low rate of breast feeding, it is now equally affecting Low- and Middle-income countries with Tanzania included. While evidence is vast on the role of breast cancer screening messages to; promote screening, debunk myths, and address barriers to uptake of breast cancer services, context-specific messages are limited. Amidst the changing technology, growth of social media and the cultural dynamics context-specific breast cancer screening messages is inevitably needed. We aimed to analyze the breast cancer screening communication messages by analyzing the experiences of women seeking care at Ocean Road Cancer Institute, in Tanzania Methods An exploratory case study using a qualitative approach was used. Study participants were purposefully selected from two major groups, younger women than the age recommended for Breast Cancer Screening (BCS) and older women who fit the age for breast cancer screening. We purposefully consecutively recruited and conducted in depth interviews until information saturation was attained. We reached information saturation at the 18th interview. Additionally, we conducted three focus group discussions with 16 participants from young women attending breast cancer examination clinics, women with breast cancer and older women without breast cancer. Data analysis followed qualitative content analysis with subcategories and categories emerging from the data. Findings Three main categories emerged: the existence of multiple sources of breast cancer screening messages, the strengths and weaknesses of breast cancer screening messages and clients' mixed perceptions on breast cancer screening messages. The existence of multiple sources of BCS messages was attributed to mass media outlets, social networks, religious gatherings, health facilities and outreach clinics. Strengths and weaknesses of breast cancer screening messages were attributed to the fact that messages were incomplete, Messages gave important information about cancers, and messages raised awareness on cancer screening. Clients’ mixed perceptions on breast cancer screening was attributed to perceptions that messages encourage women to go for breast cancer screening, messages were perceived to instill fear and worries and messages were perceived to promote early detection over screening. Conclusion Findings of this study depict that although breast cancer screening promotion messages are regarded as a source of information about cancers; they fall short of completeness and relevance to the otherwise at-risk population, and triggers negative perceptions toward screening. Therefore, this study calls for revisiting the breast cancer screening messages, employing participatory approaches to tailor the screening messages and communication media to fit specific audiences. This calls for re-designing both the content of the messages and means of delivery and thus collaborative efforts are needed.