Joshua Okyere, Country Project Coordinator at University of Ghana, shared on LinkedIn:
“A woman can know she needs cancer screening and still not be able to afford to act on that knowledge.
That is one of the messages emerging from my new study of 17,941 women aged 30–49 years in Nigeria.
Here’s what I found:
44.2% were economically dependent.
Yet only:
- 7.9% had undergone breast cancer screening
- 5.0% had undergone cervical cancer screening
Economic dependency was associated with:
- 17% lower odds of breast cancer screening
- 16% lower odds of cervical cancer screening
So is cancer screening really just an ‘awareness’ problem?
Not necessarily.
Knowledge matters. But so do money, autonomy, accessibility and the ability to make decisions about one’s own health.
If we want to improve cancer prevention, we need to move beyond telling women what to do and start addressing the conditions that determine whether they can do it.
This is my latest publication, and I’ll be sharing more of the evidence – and what it means for public health – here.
Follow for research findings without the unnecessary jargon.”
Title: Economic dependency and cancer screening behavior among women (30–49 years) in Nigeria: analysis of a national survey
Author: Joshua Okyere
You can also read: AI-Based Triage and Decision Support in Mammography and Digital Tomosynthesis for Breast Cancer Screening
