Health beliefs and practices regarding cervical cancer screening among women in Nepal: A descriptive cross‐sectional study

Abstract

The health beliefs and practices regarding cervical cancer screening among women in the mountainous and Terai region of Nepal were investigated and examined for the differences. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with a purposive sample of 216 in mountainous and 294 in Terai. The interview tools were a sociodemographic scale, a Nepalese Health Belief Model Scale for Cervical Cancer followed by the Screening Test. Chi-square test, binary logistic regression, Mann-Whitney U, and Kruskal-Wallis were used to analyze the data. The results showed that the screening rate was low for both regions with a significant difference in the benefit of screening and health motivation. Being older and having a positive family history of cervical cancer were shown to be predictors screening practice. Women from both groups preferred female doctors for screening. Culturally appropriate educational interventions focused on the benefits and obstacles of screening is needed to improve the beliefs of cervical cancer and screening and increase the screening rate. Nurses need to be aware of health beliefs regarding cervical cancer during cervical screening and education.

Improving intervention design to promote cervical cancer screening among hard-to-reach women: assessing beliefs and predicting individual attendance probabilities in Bogotá, Colombia

“…Compared to other studies using Guvenc’s scale, our results suggest that hard-to-reach women from Bogotá have lower perceived susceptibility [ 22 , 37 – 40 ], higher perceived severity [ 21 , 22 , 37 – 42 ], higher perceived benefits [ 38 – 44 ] and lower perceived barriers [ 21 , 38 , 41 , 42 , 45 , 46 ], towards cervical cancer screening. Recent reviews concluded that these beliefs have been less researched in Latin America [ 47 , 48 ].…”

“…Similarly, perceived susceptibility was associated with higher uptake rates in Ghana [ 55 ], Ethiopia [ 39 ] and Iran [ 56 ]. Additionally, higher perceived benefits were found to encourage screening behaviours in Nepal [ 41 ], Ghana [ 55 ] and Ethiopia [ 57 ]. In a recent review, Simbar et al [ 58 ] concluded that training-based interventions are able to modify perceived susceptibility and benefits, leading to behavioural changes.…”

“…The underlying assumption of the CHBM is that perceived susceptibility acts as an enabler for protective health behaviours. Indeed, several studies have found that perceived severity is associated with better cervical cancer screening uptake rates [ 20 , 37 , 41 , 68 , 69 ]. However, our results show that participants who believe that a cervical cancer diagnosis would threaten their relationships (41%) or change their whole life (74%), and participants who are afraid of a bad result (36%) are less likely to attend.…”

Cervical cancer screening utilization, and associated factors, in Nepal: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The Pap smear test was reported to be the cervical cancer screening method in 15 studies; 3,4,18,26,31e42 of these, three studies reported both VIA and Pap smear test as screening methods. 33,40,42 None of the 17 included studies reported the use of liquid-based cytology or screening by HPV test (see Table 2).…”

“…3,18,39,41,42 We compared screening utilization in rural and urban areas among the community-based studies: cervical cancer screening utilization using the Pap smear test ranged from 3.3% (21e65 years) to 14.8% (20e65 years) in rural areas, and 7.3% (21e65 years) to 20.1% (20e65 years) in the urban areas (Table 1). 18,40…”