The role of knowledge, primary care, and community engagement to improve breast screening access for Pakistani women in the UK.

Objectives: Breast cancer incidence is rising among Pakistani women, both in the UK and in Pakistan, however, uptake of breast screening remains low. This study aimed to improve access to breast screening for British Pakistani women by exploring knowledge of breast cancer and the role of primary care and community networks to support screening access amongst British-Pakistani women.

Methods: Secondary qualitative analysis of eighteen semi-structured interviews with British-Pakistani women from East Lancashire, UK, (14 with an interpreter). Anonymized transcripts of the interviews were used for a thematic analysis.

Results: Three themes were identified: “Women’s knowledge of breasts and breast cancer” described how taboo exists around Pakistani women’s bodies and around breast cancer. “Role of primary care” detailed how the General Practitioner could support informed decisions and offer a trusted and valued information source. “Community engagement and ‘the big disease’” described the potential to disseminate breast screening information through the whole community including all family members, primary care and mosques.

Conclusions: Our analysis suggested targets for future interventions to improve access to breast screening for British-Pakistani women: i) co-produced strategies to increase knowledge of breasts and breast screening; ii) greater collaboration with local GPs to support women to make an informed choice; iii) community engagement involving GPs, and community leaders, to inform all members, not just screening age women, about breast cancer and screening.