Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Feb 14;15(1):29.
doi: 10.1186/s12978-018-0471-1.

Comprehensive knowledge on cervical cancer, attitude towards its screening and associated factors among women aged 30-49 years in Finote Selam town, northwest Ethiopia

Alehegn Bishaw Geremew  1 , Abebaw Addis Gelagay  2 , Telake Azale  3
Affiliations

Comprehensive knowledge on cervical cancer, attitude towards its screening and associated factors among women aged 30-49 years in Finote Selam town, northwest Ethiopia

Alehegn Bishaw Geremew et al. Reprod Health. .

Abstract

Background: Screening services for cervical pre-cancerous lesions is currently available for all women aged 30-49 years at public hospitals in Ethiopia. Though women's knowledge and their attitude are determinants for the uptake the screening service, there is limited information on these regards. Therefore, this study aimed to assess comprehensive knowledge on cervical cancer, attitudes towards the screening, and associated factors among women aged 30-49 years at Finote Selam town, northwest Ethiopia.

Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 30, to April 15, 2017. The sample size calculated for this study was 1224 and a cluster sampling technique was used to select the participants from three randomly selected kebeles. Epi-Info version 7 and Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20 were used for data entry and analysis respectively. A binary logistic regression model was used. In multivariable logistic analysis, adjusted odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval was used to determine the presence and strength of associations between covariate and outcome variable.

Results: A total of 1137 women participated in this study. Nearly one third, 30.3% (95%CI: 27.7, 32.9) of the women had knowledge of cervical cancer, and 58.1% (95% CI: 55, 62.2) had a favorable attitude towards cervical cancer screening. In the multivariable analysis, having college and above education (AOR = 7.21, 95%CI: 3.41, 15.29), knowing someone with cervical cancer (AOR =5.38, 95%CI: 2.38, 12.15), and having a history of sexually transmitted diseases (AOR = 2.75, 95%CI: 1.24, 6.04) were significantly associated with knowledge on cervical cancer. Meanwhile, college and above educational status (AOR = 2.56, 95%CI: 1.14, 5.69), knowing someone with cervical cancer (AOR = 3.24, 95%CI: 1.14, 9.15), and having knowledge of cervical cancer (AOR = 3, 95%CI: 1.97, 4.29) were positively associated with favorable attitudes towards cervical cancer screening.

Conclusion: The proportion of women who had knowledge on cervical cancer was low where as relatively, a large proportion of the study participants in this study had favorable attitude towards cervical cancer screening. Educational status, knowing someone with cervical cancer, a history of sexually transmitted diseases was factors affecting both women's knowledge and their attitude. Having knowledge on cervical cancer was factor affecting attitude towards screening services. Provision of information, education, and counseling about the disease and screening service are mandatory to address their knowledge gap and to improve women's attitude towards screening service.

Keywords: Attitude; Ethiopia; Knowledge; Women aged 30–49 years.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical approval was obtained from Institutional Review Board of the University of Gondar, Institute of Public Health. Participants were informed about the confidentiality of information and it was maintained by excluding personal identifiers from the data collection form. Verbal informed consent was obtained from every study participants before data collection. Participants were informed that participation was voluntary and as it was their right not to participate or withdraw at any time if they were not comfortable.

Consent for publication

It is not applicable since it is a cross-sectional study.

Competing interests

All authors declared that they have no any competing interest.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Comprehensive knowledge on cervical cancer and attitude towards screening among women aged 30–49 years in Finote Selam town, northwest Ethiopia, 2017
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Fitzmaurice C, Dicker D, Pain A, Hamavid H, Moradi-Lakeh M, MacIntyre MF, et al. The global burden of cancer 2013. JAMA Oncol. 2015;1:505–527. doi: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2015.0735. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ferlay JSI, Dikshit R, Eser S, Mathers C, Rebelo M, et al. Cancer incidence and mortality worldwide: sources, methods and major patterns in GLOBOCAN 2012. Int J Cancer. 2015;136:E359–E386. doi: 10.1002/ijc.29210. - DOI - PubMed
    1. UNFPA . Africa cervical cancer multi indicator incidence& mortality score card. 2014.
    1. Bruni L, Barrionuevo-Rosas L, Albero G, Serrano B, Mena M, Gómez D, Muñoz J, Bosch FX, de Sanjosé S. Human Papillomavirus and related diseases in Ethiopia. Summary report december 2016. ICO Information Centre on HPV and Cancer (HPV Information Centre). 2016. https://www.hpvcentre.net/statistics/reports/XWX.pdf.
    1. Abate SM. Trends of cervical cancer in Ethiopia 2015. Cervical Cancer. 2015;1:103.