Evaluating Interventions for Breast Cancer Screening in Ghana

Summary

This study aims to implement two interventions to determine the most effective one that can improve Ghanaian women's decision to get their breasts examined by a healthcare professional. The two interventions are (1) a system where community health nurses will be leveraged to educate women on breast cancer screening; (2) a system where women will be sent text messages about breast cancer screening. Both interventions will be carried out over five months. A survey will be conducted before the intervention is introduced. Then, after the sixth month, another survey will be implemented to determine whether there have been changes. Only women who are 25 years or older will be included in the study.

Conditions

• Breast Cancer Screening

Interventions

OTHER

Community Health Nurse-Led Breast Cancer Screening Education

The Community Health Nurse-led intervention differs from conventional health education programmes by using trained community health nurses who are embedded within the local healthcare system to deliver structured, interactive, and culturally responsive breast cancer screening education. Unlike one-time awareness campaigns, this intervention provides repeated biweekly sessions over five months, allowing progressive learning, reinforcement of key messages, and opportunities to address participant concerns and misconceptions.

OTHER

Text Messaging Breast Cancer Screening Educational Intervention

The text messaging intervention is distinguished by its use of a structured, evidence-informed mobile health approach to deliver breast cancer screening information directly to participants' mobile phones. Unlike generic health reminder messages, the intervention follows the same thematic structure as the CHN-led programme, ensuring delivery of comprehensive breast cancer screening education rather than isolated screening prompts.

OTHER

Control Arm - standard of care

The control group will receive standard community-level healthcare information routinely provided through existing primary healthcare services and will not receive any additional breast cancer screening-specific education, text messages, or structured intervention activities during the study period. This distinguishes the control condition from the intervention groups by maintaining usual care while allowing evaluation of the added effect of community health nurse-led education and text messaging interventions.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Huddersfield

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Padam Simkhada, PhD · University of Chester

• Bibha Simkhada, PhD · University of Huddersfield

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SCREENING

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

25 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-10-01

Primary Completion

2027-11-30

Completion

2027-11-30

Countries

• Ghana

Study Locations