Knowledge, attitude and practices on cervical cancer screening among undergraduate female students in University of Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia: an institution based cross sectional study

Abstract

Background Cervical cancer is a major public health problem. In the world, cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer among women and it is one of the leading causes of cancer mortality in females. It is the second most common women cancer in Ethiopia with almost 6300 new cases and 4884 deaths annually. Despite the high burden of new cases and deaths, there is a scarcity of data on knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) towards cervical cancer screening among female university students in Ethiopia particularly in the study area. Therefore, the present study was aimed to assess the KAP of undergraduate female students towards cervical cancer screening. Methods An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted in April 2018 at the University of Gondar, College of Medicine and Health Sciences undergraduate female students. Pretested, self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Four hundred and three female students were recruited by a simple random sampling method and the data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20 statistical packages. Descriptive data analysis was used to report the results. Results More than half of the respondents (59.3.3%) had good knowledge, whereas nearly 67.7% of the respondents had favorable attitude towards cervical cancer. However, less than 1% of the respondents had been screened for cervical cancer. Conclusion Although undergraduate female students had apparently good knowledge and favorable attitude, their practices on cervical cancer screening were quite low. Therefore, the health sectors and the gender streaming office of the university mobilize students to strengthen the uptake the cervical cancer screening practice.

Knowledge of Cervical Cancer and Attitudes Towards Its Prevention Among Women Attending Antenatal Clinics in Primary Health Centres in a Niger Delta Capital City

“…The awareness level of cervical cancer among our participants was not significantly different from a study among female undergraduates by Getaneh et al where 90.1% of respondents were aware of cervical cancer. [25] In a Teaching Hospital in Khartoum-Sudan and two other studies in Zaria Nigeria however, the awareness rate was less than ours at 50.0%, 66.7% and 66.9% respectively. [26][27][28] The women in our study demonstrated an overall better level of knowledge of the symptoms and risk factors for cervical cancer compared to the participants in Ethiopia and Zaria.…”

“…[26][27][28] The women in our study demonstrated an overall better level of knowledge of the symptoms and risk factors for cervical cancer compared to the participants in Ethiopia and Zaria. [25,27,28] Earlier studies two rural suburbs in Lagos showed a very low awareness rate of 4.2% and 12.8% in 2012 and 2018 respectively. [29,30] The reason for these differences is uncertain; one would expect little difference or even none as about half of the participants in our study, and virtually all the participants in the Ethiopian study were educated respectively.…”

Six-year trend analysis of malaria prevalence at University of Gondar Specialized Referral Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia, from 2014 to 2019

“…The town has latitude and longitude 12°361 N 37°281E with an elevation of 2133 m above sea level. According to Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia 2015 report, it has twelve sub city and 22 urban and 11 rural kebeles with a projected population of 323,900 12 . The city has 8 public health centers and 1 public comprehensive specialized hospital (University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital), more than 13 private clinics and 1 general hospital providing health services like diagnosis, treatment, prevention and control of diseases 13 .…”

A highly efficient polydopamine encapsulated clinical ICG theranostic nanoplatform for enhanced photothermal therapy of cervical cancer

“…Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women and one of the leading causes of cancer death. 1 However, conventional anti-tumor treatment methods such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgical treatment cause certain damage to the body and may have certain side effects. 2,3 The development of anti-tumor treatment has drawn an upsurge of research all over the world.…”