JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Breast Cancer has positioned itself globally as one of the main public health problems, especially in Latin America and Mexico. In some countries there, several programs for prevention and control are being developed and implemented on a permanent basis, but there is no public report on the policies that originated the programs, their number, type and scope, as well as their impact to address the problem of breast cancer in women.

Objective:

The objectives of this scoping review were: 1) identifying which policies and/or programs for the prevention and control of breast cancer in Latin America have been analyzed in the last 20 years, 2) analyzing their type, extension and scope, and 3) describing the reference frameworks on which these policies and/or prevention and control programs of the breast cancer based on.

Methods:

A scoping review was carried out according to Arksey & O’Malley’s method in six stages: 1) identify research questions, 2) identify relevant studies, 3) study selection, 4) data representation, 5) classification, synthesis and reporting of results, and 6) consultation exercise (optional). The questions that guided this review were: which breast cancer prevention and control policies in Latin America have been analyzed in the international scientific literature?, what is the type, extension and scope of the policies and/or programs in accordance with those reports?, and what is the existing reference framework for policies and/or programs for the prevention and control of breast cancer in women at the national and international level? The search period was 2000-2019 and was carried out in the following electronic databases: MEDLINE (PubMed), MEDLINE (EbscoHost), CINAHL (EbscoHost), Academic Search Complete (EbscoHost), ERIC, ISI Web of Science (Science Citation Index) in english, Cochrane and MEDES-MEDicina in Spanish. Data was analyzed and presented through descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis using the ATLAS.ti software.

Results:

The selected studies identify several Latin American countries that have generated policies/programs to prevent and control breast cancer in women, focused mainly on risk communication, prevention and timely detection, effective access to health services, improving the screening process and evaluation of screening programs. However, it is necessary to establish evaluation criteria and greater active participation of civil society in policies design and programs execution with the inclusion of the population to whom they are directed and the contexts where women reside. This could undoubtedly help eliminate existing barriers.

Conclusions:

Although there are public policies and action programs for the prevention and control of breast cancer in Latin America, a pending issue is the evaluation of results to analyze the effectiveness and impact of its implementation, given the magnitude of the public health problem it represents and because women and civil society have an important role on its prevention and control.