Breast cancer screening among adult women aged 30 to 49 years: Insights and analysis of NFHS 5 (2019-2021)

Of all the cancer types, breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed in women, with 2.3 million new cases and 670,000 cases attributable to this type of cancer in 2022. Girls from puberty onwards may be at the potential risk of breast cancer, especially as the population ages, and the treatment is only successful if the disease is detected early using screening methods. The present study is a secondary analysis using the data from the National Family Health Survey-5 conducted in India from 2019 to 2021 to analyse the trends in breast cancer screening.
The findings suggest that the Indian southern zone had the highest estimated screening proportion of 54%. In contrast to this, the Central and Eastern zones had the lowest screening rates, which were 5% and 3%, respectively. Within Tamil Nadu, however, the Central region had the highest screening rate of 33%, with the West region following close with 29% and the North region at 22%. The South region recorded the least screening with an estimated proportion of 16 percent.
This study reveals that Tamil Nadu has one of the highest rates of breast cancer screening in India, although there is imbalance at the district level. In addition, breast cancer screening should be given as part of an annual health checkup for all women over 30 years of age in order to enhance early diagnosis and therapy and consequently lower rates of deaths.