Development and validation of a multilateral index to determine economic status in developing countries: the Patient Financial Eligibility Tool (PFET).

The objective was to develop and validate a multilateral index to determine patient ability to pay for medication in low- and middle-income countries. Primary data were collected in 2009 from 117 cancer patients in China, India, Thailand, and Malaysia. The initial tool included income, expenditures, and assets-based items using ad hoc determined brackets. Principal components analysis was performed to determine final weights. Agreement (Kappa) was measured between results from the final tool and from an Impact Survey (IS) conducted after beginning drug therapy to quantify a patient's actual ability to pay in terms of number of drug cycles per year. The authors present the step-by-step methodology employed to develop the tool on a country-by-country basis. Overall Cronbach value was 0.84. Agreement between the Patient Financial Eligibility Tool (PFET) and IS was perfect (equal number of drug cycles) for 58.1% of patients, fair (1 cycle difference) for 29.1%, and poor (>1 cycle) for 12.8%. Overall Kappa was 0.76 (P<0.0001). The PFET is an effective tool for determining an individual's ability to pay for medication. Combined with tiered models for patient participation in the cost of medication, it could help to increase access to high-priced products in developing countries.

A mixed-method assessment of beliefs and practice around breast cancer in Ethiopia: implications for public health programming and cancer control.

A large proportion of breast cancer patients in Ethiopia present for biomedical care too late, or not at all, resulting in high mortality. This study was conducted to better learn of beliefs and practices among patients accessing breast cancer services in a large referral centre in Ethiopia. Using a mixed-method design, we interviewed 69 breast cancer patients presenting for care at Tikur Anbessa Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, about their beliefs, experiences and perspectives on breast cancer. Awareness of breast cancer is low in Ethiopia and even among those who are aware of the disease, a sense of hopelessness and fatalism is common. Early signs/symptoms are frequently ignored and patients often first present to traditional healers. Breast cancer is perceived as being caused typically from humoral anomalies or difficulties resulting from breast feeding, and study participants indicate that stigmatisation and social isolation complicate discussion and action around breast cancer. Consistent with other studies, this study shows that traditional beliefs and practices are common around breast cancer and that numerous barriers exist to identification and treatment in Ethiopia. Integrating health beliefs and practice into public health action in innovative ways may reduce stigma, increase awareness and promote survivability among breast cancer patients.

Complex care systems in developing countries: breast cancer patient navigation in Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: As the global visibility and importance of breast cancer increases, especially in developing countries, ensuring that countries strengthen and develop health systems that support prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of a complex chronic disease is a priority. Understanding how breast cancer patients navigate health systems to reach appropriate levels of care is critical in assessing and improving the health system response in countries to an increasing breast cancer burden in their populations. Ethiopia has accelerated attention to breast cancer, expanding clinical and public health efforts at diagnosing and treating breast cancer earlier and more efficiently. METHODS: This project used a mixed-method approach to assessing patient navigation of the healthcare system that resulted in care at the cancer referral hospital for Ethiopia (Tikur Anbessa Hospital [TAH]). In total, 69 patients representative of the entire breast cancer clinical population at TAH were interviewed. RESULTS: Navigation chains are widely divergent and typically involve 3 or more care nodes until they reach the referral hospital. Patients who consult traditional healers have significantly more care nodes to reach the referral hospital than others, and patients who have direct access to local and regional hospitals have the smallest number of care nodes. Patients report moving laterally from 1 health institution to another or regressing to lower levels of care, sometimes complicated by reinvolving traditional healers. CONCLUSIONS: The care system can be streamlined for breast cancer patients in Ethiopia to facilitate patient access to available and clinically effective diagnostic and treatment services in the country, largely through improving local primary care and hospital capacity to provide basic breast cancer services and improve detection and referral.