Table 3.
Systems factors affecting treatment completion
| Variable (N1,N2) | Completed Treatment N (%1) |
Did Not Complete Treatment N (%1) |
p-value5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Questionnaire Respondents (86, 31) | <0.0001 | ||
| Patients | 53 (61.63%) | 5 (16.13%) | |
| Next of Kin | 33 (38.37%) | 26 (83.87%) | |
| Systems Factors | |||
|
| |||
| Time to Travel to hospital (minutes) (85, 30) | 0.5297 | ||
| Mean | 105.65 | 107.16 | |
| Median | 60 | 45 | |
| Std. Dev. | 139.32 | 107.16 | |
| Range | 10–720 | 15–480 | |
|
| |||
| Breast cancer education materials Provided by hospital (85, 30) | 0.4144 | ||
| Yes | 7 (8.54%) | 4 (13.33%) | |
| No | 78 (91.76%) | 26 (86.67%) | |
| Follow-up appointments clearly stated by hospital staff (85, 30) | 0.0664 | ||
| Yes | 85 (100.00%) | 28 (93.33%) | |
| No | 0 (0.00%) | 2 (6.67%) | |
| Lengthy travel to hospital (84, 30) | 0.6197 | ||
| Yes | 38 (45.24%) | 12 (40.00%) | |
| No | 46 (54.76%) | 18 (60.00%) | |
| Lengthy oncology waiting periods (85, 29) | 0.7102 | ||
| Yes | 56 (65.88%) | 18 (62.07%) | |
| No | 29 (34.12%) | 11 (37.93%) | |
| Knowledge of cancer funding source in Ghana (not including the National Health Insurance Scheme) (84, 30) | 1.0000 | ||
| Yes | 5 (5.95%) | 2 (6.67%) | |
| No | 79 (94.05%) | 28 (93.33%) | |
| Hospital staff made patient aware of the importance of completing treatment (85, 30) | 0.3538 | ||
| Yes3 | 76 (89.41%) | 27 (90.00%) | |
| No | 7 (8.24%) | 1 (3.33%) | |
| I Don’t Know | 2 (2.35%) | 2 (6.67%) | |
| Chemotherapy administered (85, 29) | 0.7506 | ||
| Yes | 75 (88.24%) | 25 (86.21%) | |
| No | 10 (11.76%) | 4 (13.79%) | |
| Drug always available at KATH (75, 25) | 0.5636 | ||
| Yes | 38 (50.67%) | 11 (44.00%) | |
| No | 37 (49.33%) | 14 (56.00%) | |
| Traveled to outside pharmacy to pick up chemotherapy drugs (75, 25) | 0.1534 | ||
| Yes | 74 (98.67%) | 23 (92.00%) | |
| No | 1 (1.33%) | 2 (8.00%) | |
| Unavailability of chemotherapy drugs at hospital delayed treatment (75, 25) | 0.0329 | ||
| Yes | 1 (1.33%) | 3 (12.00%) | |
| No | 73 (97.33%) | 21 (84.00%) | |
| I Don’t Know | 1 (1.33%) | 1 (4.00%) | |
| Early detection (≤ Stage IIIa) (81, 28) | 0.0133 | ||
| Yes | 39 (48.15%) | 6 (21.43%) | |
| No | 42 (51.85%) | 22 (78.57%) | |
1
Percents reflect that of each column
2
P-values were calculated using the Chi-squared test or the Fisher’s Exact test. The Fisher’s Exact test was employed if any variable had a cell count of less than 5
3
Yes indicates the respondent stated a doctor, nurse, or other hospital staff member made them aware completing treatment was important
N1 The total number of respondents for a given variable within the ‘Completed Treatment’ group
N2 The total number of respondents for a given variable within the ‘Did Not Complete’ group