Study of mobile phone ownership among rural women in Ghana

Limited evidence exists on the use of mobile technology to advance breast awareness and screening in Ghana. We investigated women’s ownership and use of mobile phones to inform the development of a mobile phone application for breast awareness and screening in rural Ghana. We analyzed data from 708 women aged >25 years in a cross-sectional survey conducted in fourteen rural communities of the Ashanti region, Ghana. Cross-tabulations, chi-square tests and Firth's Penalized Logistic Regression were performed using STATA version 18. Most women owned a mobile phone (98.2%), were willing to (1) receive text messages about breast cancer (BC) and screening (93.8%), and (2) set up appointments for clinical breast examination (93.9%). Women aged 25-29 years showed the highest willingness to receive messages about BC and screening (97.3%) and to schedule appointments (96.7%; p-values < .001). Women with secondary or higher education were most willing (96.1% and 96.3%, respectively; p < .001). Gainfully employed women in the government and private sectors showed the highest willingness for both messages (98.8% for both; p-values .010 and .001). Women who were comfortable reading and receiving SMS (99.1% and 98.7%; p-values < .001) and writing and sending SMS (99.1% and 98.8%; p-values < .001) expressed the greatest willingness. Additionally, women who responded to messages on the same day exhibited the highest willingness (98.3% and 97.8%; p-values