IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v367y2025ics0277953625000516.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Barriers to breast and cervical cancer screening among adolescent girls and young women in Kenya: A nationwide cross-sectional survey

Author

Listed:
  • Kawuki, Joseph
  • Savi, Victor
  • Betunga, Benjamin
  • Gopang, Meroona
  • Isangula, Kahabi Ganka
  • Nuwabaine, Lilian

Abstract

Promoting regular screening remains one of the primary preventive measures for breast and cervical cancer. The study aimed to assess the prevalence and barriers to breast and cervical cancer screening among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in Kenya. The study used data from the 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS), with 12,026 AGYW who were selected by multistage sampling. The outcomes of interest were breast and cervical cancer screening. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess factors negatively associated with the outcome variables, using SPSS (version 29.0). Of the 12,026 AGYW included in this study, only 6.0% (95%CI: 5.6–6.8) and 5.1% (95%CI: 4.8–6.0) had undertaken breast and cervical cancer screening, respectively. Low education (AOR = 0.08, 95%CI: 0.02–0.34 and AOR = 0.48, 95%CI: 0.28–0.83), not working (AOR = 0.67, 95%CI: 0.46–0.97 and AOR = 0.59, 95%CI: 0.42–0.82), low wealth index (AOR = 0.55, 95%CI: 0.32–0.92 and AOR = 0.45, 95%CI: 0.25–0.81), no visit to a healthcare facility in the last 6 months (AOR = 0.48, 95%CI: 0.33–0.69 and AOR = 0.50, 95%CI: 0.35–0.71), and no birth record (AOR = 0.29, 95%CI: 0.13–0.62 and AOR = 0.58, 95%CI: 0.27–0.74), were the major barriers to both breast and cervical cancer screening, respectively. Moreover, having no access to newspaper (AOR = 0.67, 95%CI: 0.46–0.97) was a significant barrier to breast cancer screening while having big problems with distance to a healthcare facility (AOR = 0.49, 95%CI: 0.33–0.73) and not using modern contraception (AOR = 0.60, 95%CI: 0.42–0.86) hindered cervical cancer screening. In conclusion, more efforts are needed from both the government and cancer stakeholders to increase accessibility of breast and cervical cancer screening services, especially to those with low social economic status. More targeted education and sensitization, improving livelihoods of AGYW through various women empowerment efforts, and improving screening capacity of low-grade healthcare facilities are among the useful strategies to improve the low screening rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Kawuki, Joseph & Savi, Victor & Betunga, Benjamin & Gopang, Meroona & Isangula, Kahabi Ganka & Nuwabaine, Lilian, 2025. "Barriers to breast and cervical cancer screening among adolescent girls and young women in Kenya: A nationwide cross-sectional survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 367(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:367:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625000516
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117722
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953625000516
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117722?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:367:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625000516. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.