Delayed help-seeking for symptomatic breast cancer: reasons for delay among participants receiving treatment at a public healthcare facility in South Africa

We explored delayed help-seeking behaviour for symptomatic breast cancer among a sample of female patients attending an outpatient breast cancer clinic at a tertiary public hospital in the Western Cape. The objective of the research was to explore the perceived personal and structural barriers to help-seeking among women with breast cancer from this low-resource setting, as this information has not been documented. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 25 breast cancer patients. Patients participated in individual interviews that were audio-recorded and transcribed. We conducted a thematic analysis using both inductive and deductive coding. Participants’ limited knowledge of breast cancer, negative views of the healthcare system, and challenging life experiences, such as marital discord, perceived lack of support, and caring for sick loved ones, contributed to their help-seeking delays. We used a combination of the Common-Sense Model of Self-Regulation and Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems theory to conceptualize and organize these findings. A general lack of breast cancer knowledge was a major contributing factor to help-seeking delays among participants in the study. This finding was surprising considering that several breast cancer awareness campaigns have been run both nationally in South Africa and internationally. We call attention to the need for accessible breast cancer information at primary healthcare and community levels.