Effect of a breast navigation programme in a teaching hospital in Africa

Background Breast cancer screening programmes have been developed in few developing countries to aid curb the increasing burden. However, breast cancer is still being detected in late stage, attributed to barriers in health care. Patient navigation programmes have been implemented in developed countries to help patients overcome these barriers, and they have been associated with early detection and timely diagnosis. Despite the consistent positive effects of breast navigation programmes, there are no studies conducted to show its effect in Africa where the needs are enormous. Aim To evaluate the effect of patient navigation programme on patient return after an abnormal clinical breast cancer screening examination finding at Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi(AKUH-N). Setting Women presenting for breast screening. Methods This was a before-and-after study conducted on 76 patients before and after the implementation of the navigation programme. They were followed up for 30 days. Measures included proportion of patient return and time to return. Results The proportion of return of patients in the navigated and non-navigated group was 57.9% and 23.7%, respectively (odds ratio [OR]: 4.43 [95% confidence interval, CI: 1.54- 12.78]; p = 0.0026).The proportion of timely return in the navigated group was 90.1% and 77.8% for the non-navigated group (OR: 2.85 [95% CI: 0.34-24.30], p = 0.34). The mean time to return in the non-navigated and navigated group was 7.33 days and 8.33 days, respectively (p = 0.67). Conclusion There was an increase in the proportion of patients who returned for follow-up following abnormal clinical breast examination finding after implementation of the breast navigation programme at AKUH-N.