Table 2

Barriers to presenting for follow-up reported by participants who missed follow-up appointment (n=7)

Participant and age	Reason for missing follow-up appointment	Quote
ID#116 age 33	Recovering from Malaria and her child’s illness	‘I failed to come because as I said earlier on, I had malaria.’
ID#180 age 31	Sick child, no transport, busy in garden, husband was on leave	‘So, on the date when they said I should go, I failed because one of my children was sick and I did not make it to the hospital.’
ID#207 age 32	Meeting/coordination misunderstanding, lack of transportation, mother was sick	‘I did not manage to come as I went for a very important meeting at Malili…. my in-law was sick and admitted at KCH because she had a stroke, it was not possible for me to come on that day. I came on another day and I was told that ‘if you missed your appointment then you cannot be helped as the doctors are not available’, so I went back and I never went there again.’
ID#253 age 42	Lack of money to buy fuel for transportation	‘Money was a challenge to buy fuel to get to Pingu, because where we stay is far to reach Mpingu, yes that’s why we failed to come here. Even the first time that we came here, when we were returning, we walked a long distance on foot. So, I felt very weak in my body.’
ID#329 age 41	Partner denied support and did not provide transportation	‘When I went home, I explained to my husband but we did not seem to agree on what to do …whenever I asked for transport, he used to refuse and say ‘there is something you want to do there and not for the medication’ so it was hard for me to come.’
ID#351 age 49	Misunderstanding about where to follow-up, transportation	‘when I was referred to come here, I did not know that I was supposed to come here. I went there at Ethel Mutharika…’
ID#385 age 39	Did not feel need to come back she was told she did not have precancerous cells based on pretreatment biopsy results and received treatment for chronic cervicitis.	‘they showed that I did not have cancer, but it was another disease. They told me that they will inject me and then give me some oral medicine and they said I should come back 2 October. It is on the 2^nd of October that I did not come to my scheduled appointment and from what I saw, I said to myself that what I had asked God to do for me was fulfilled and I was fine.’