Abstract
Background
Menstrual hygiene products (MHPs) may offer a high-reach, frequent, long-lasting yet underutilized channel for health education, particularly in low-resource settings. This study aimed to explore women’s breast health awareness (BHA) and their attitudes towards and preferences for BHA messages on MHPs.
Methods
Women aged 18–49 years in Ghana and Tanzania (n = 438; 216 Ghana, 222 Tanzania), stratified by age and urban/rural setting, completed a questionnaire assessing socio-demographics, BHA, and preferences for BHA messages with MHP. BHA was assessed with an adapted 31-item Breast Cancer Awareness Measure Tool covering 4 domains: breast cancer signs and symptoms, confidence, skills, and behaviour in noticing breast changes, anticipated help-seeking delays, and risk factors. Items were scored on a 10-point scale.
Results
Here we show that overall BHA is slightly higher in Ghana than Tanzania (urban/rural: 6.2/6.4 vs. 5.6/5.3). Awareness is highest for signs and symptoms (median score range hereafter: 5.5–7.8) and lowest for risk factors (2.0–3.8). While women show confidence in noticing breast changes (8.0–10.0) and seeking help (10–10), their skills are insufficient (1.0–5.0) and previous help-seeking behaviours were low (0–0). Women would overwhelmingly (91%) choose MHPs with BHA messages over MHPs without, preferring varied presenting formats, mostly between outside of the package, on individual pad covers, and a leaflet.
Conclusions
Findings highlight generally low BHA level in Ghana and Tanzania. The strong acceptability of having BHA messages on MHP presents a scalable and sustainable opportunity to improve BHA with the goal of reducing BC incidence and mortality.
Plain language summary
Millions of women use menstrual hygiene products every month, providing an opportunity to deliver health information and improve women’s health awareness. This study aimed to understand how much women in Ghana and Tanzania know about breast health and whether they would accept breast health messages on menstrual products. We surveyed 438 women aged 18–49 years from urban and rural areas using a questionnaire about breast health knowledge, behaviours, and message preferences. We found low overall awareness of breast health. However, most women did use menstrual products and would prefer products with breast health messages. These promising findings call for research to test whether adding women’s health information to menstrual products may be a simple, effective and wide-reaching approach to improve women’s health and health seeking behaviours.
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Acknowledgements
We thank all the women participating in this study.
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T.M. did the analyses and drafted the paper with E.F.M. and C.T.N. under the supervision of V.M. B.T.M., M.M., G.J.M., J.K., H.S., F.B., L.A., and B.K. conducted the fieldwork training and interviews under the leadership of E.F.M., C.T.N., and V.M. V.M. designed the study with participation of S.M.C., M.M., Id.S.S., and H.S. All authors contributed to data quality, management, interpretation of results and writing of the manuscript.
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Mo, T., Msoka, E.F., Narh, C.T. et al. Breast cancer awareness and preferences for screening messaging on menstrual hygiene products in Ghana and Tanzania. Commun Med (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-026-01522-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-026-01522-9
