Effectiveness of interventions for improving timely diagnosis of breast and cervical cancers in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review.
Publication Date
2022-04-25Journal Title
BMJ Open
ISSN
2044-6055
Publisher
BMJ
Volume
12
Issue
4
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Nnaji, C. A., Kuodi, P., Walter, F. M., & Moodley, J. (2022). Effectiveness of interventions for improving timely diagnosis of breast and cervical cancers in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review.. BMJ Open, 12 (4) https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054501
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To systematically synthesise available evidence on the nature and effectiveness of interventions for improving timely diagnosis of breast and cervical cancers in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). DESIGN: A systematic review of published evidence. The review was conducted and reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses. DATA SOURCES: A comprehensive search of published literature was conducted. In addition, relevant grey literature sources and bibliographical references of included studies were searched for potentially eligible evidence. STUDY SELECTION: Studies published between January 2010 and November 2020 were eligible for inclusion. To be eligible, studies had to report on interventions/strategies targeted at women, the general public or healthcare workers, aimed at improving the timely diagnosis of breast and/or cervical cancers in LMIC settings. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Literature search, screening, study selection, data extraction and quality appraisal were conducted by two independent reviewers. Evidence was synthesised and reported using a global taxonomy framework for early cancer diagnosis. RESULTS: From the total of 10 593 records identified, 21 studies conducted across 20 LMICs were included in this review. Most of the included studies (16/21) focused primarily on interventions addressing breast cancers; two focused on cervical cancer while the rest examined multiple cancer types. Reported interventions targeted healthcare workers (12); women and adolescent girls (7) and both women and healthcare workers (3). Eight studies reported on interventions addressing access delays; seven focused on interventions addressing diagnostic delays; two reported on interventions targeted at addressing both access and diagnostic delays, and four studies assessed interventions addressing access, diagnostic and treatment delays. While most interventions were demonstrated to be feasible and effective, many of the reported outcome measures are of limited clinical relevance to diagnostic timeliness. CONCLUSIONS: Though limited, evidence suggests that interventions aimed at addressing barriers to timely diagnosis of breast and cervical cancer are feasible in resource-limited contexts. Future interventions need to address clinically relevant measures to better assess efficacy of interventions. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42020177232.
Keywords
Public health, 1506, 1724, oncology, breast tumours, public health, organisation of health services
Sponsorship
University of Cape Town (Not applicable)
GlaxoSmithKline Africa Non-Communicable Disease Open Lab (023)
National Department of Health (Not applicable)
Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) (Not applicable)
UK Medical Research Council (Newton Fund). (Not applicable)
Identifiers
bmjopen-2021-054501
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054501
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/336543
Rights
Licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Statistics
Total file downloads (since January 2020). For more information on metrics see the
IRUS guide.