Knowledge, attitude and practice of cervical cancer screening in women visiting a tertiary care hospital of Delhi

Abstract

Background: Cervical cancer being a major cause of morbidity and mortality in women in developing countries, its awareness is essential. Aim: The aim of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of women regarding the basic screening test for detection of cancer cervix. Settings and Design: Population based cross-sectional study. Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional prospective study was conducted. Information from consenting participants (450) was collected using structured questionnaire. Answers were described in terms of knowledge, attitude and practice and their respective adequacy with respect to Papanicolaou (Pap) test, the most common test used for early detection of cervical cancer. Adequacy was compared between the categories of socio demographic and clinical variables. Statistical Analysis: The data collected was analyzed using statistical package (SPSS version 18.0). Adequacy was compared between the categories of the control variables by χ2 test with a 5% significance level. Results: Knowledge, attitude and practices regarding Pap test were adequate in 32.7%, 18.2% and 7.3% of women respectively. Major impediment to adequate practice was lack of request by physician. Knowledge, attitudes and practices were found to increase significantly with increasing age and education. Conclusion: Effective information, education and communication strategies are required to improve the level of awareness of public. Health-care professional should be proactive in imparting knowledge at every opportunity.

Awareness of sexually transmitted infections and cervical cancer among women in urban slums of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

“…Similarly Das et al observed significantly greater proportions of adequate knowledge among women in higher age group in Delhi. 11 Awareness about STI symptoms: genital lesions and genital discharge among men was observed poor among women. Risky behaviour; multiple sexual partners was observed in few women with non-use of condom.…”

A Mixed Method Research to Identify Perceived Reasons and Solutions for Low Uptake of Cervical Cancer Screening in Urban Families of Bhopal Region

“…These findings are similar to observations on a cross-sectional study [19] conducted in hospital settings in the same area. Regarding the knowledge of preventive measures and screening, the performance is dismal as shown in previous studies [18, 20, 21]. Although almost half of the women think that cervical cancer is a preventable disease only 34% of women know about cervical cancer screening and only dismal 11 percent of women have ever undergone test [18, 19].…”

Challenges of health promotion and education strategies to prevent cervical cancer in India: A systematic review

“…Overall, 77 papers and one dissertation were eligible for analysis and were listed in the order of publication years. [171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546474849505152535455565758596061626364656667686970717273747576777879808182838485868788899091929394] The review process is explained in Figure 1.…”

“…The studies consist of different populations such as women and men from different community groups[17202425313235394143454751616669717379808586909293]And attended clinics[2729425259676872757682]Students (nursing/medical/paramedical/nonmedical)[3840464850565860646974818389]Health-care providers (doctors, nurses, and other health workers);[1828365354555657626365667778889194] migrated Indians;[1921262730333437498487] and cervical cancer patients. [23]…”