Knowledge attitude and practice of cervical cancer screening among sexually active women in Onitsha, southeast Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Cervical cancer is a major cause of death in the developing world. This high fatality is due to late presentation. It is believed that widespread screening of women for precursor lesion and early detection of the invasive disease can lead to a reduction in cervical cancer and cervical cancer deaths. This study assesses the knowledge, attitude and practice of cervical cancer among sexually active women in Onitsha Southeast Nigeria.

Methods: Three major layouts in Onitsha were chosen as the areas of study In these areas, 5 sites each where major economic activities take place were chosen for the distribution of the questionnaire. A total of 400 pretested questionnaires were administered to women who gave their verbal consent to participate in this study. The data were analyzed using SPSS package for windows version 11.0.

Results: The result showed that 76 (26.85%) of the respondents were aware of cervical cancer screening. Thirty six (47.4%) of the aware group knew that the test was a screening test for cervical cancer There was significant association between the educational status and the knowledge of Pap test but there was no significant association between the educational status and the utilization of the Pap test.

Conclusion: This study shows that there is poor awareness and utilization of cervical screening test in our environment. There is therefore an urgent need to establish an aggressive and sustainable awareness campaign on the preventive nature of cervical cancer and further establish an organized cancer screening programme.