Rural community’s perspectives on cervical cancer screening: Report of a consensus-planning workshop

Abstract

Abstract:The success of any screening programme depends largely on the acceptability of the community to undergo screening. This study is an attempt to explore the perspectives of rural women on screening through qualitative research, using data generated in a consensus workshop for an unscreened population prior to the start of a screening programme. The study adopted a qualitative method in the form of consensus-planning workshop prior to the start of the careHPV screening project. Knowledge about cervical cancer and human papillomavirus (HPV) infection was found to be very low. Special efforts are needed to educate the elderly women of the family and the peers of the rural community so that the project runs successfully, as their views can influence community participation. The response by rural women in undertaking selfsamplings was good. Cervical screening is acceptable and can be implemented in a rural community setting. The success of screening programme depends on health education of the rural community.

Progress of cancer research in developing countries

“…Despite the low rate of awareness of association of HPV infection and cervical cancer, rural Indian women are mostly comfortable with self-collection of care HPV samples. Husbands emerged as the most influential component for the success of screening project as they are the decision makers especially for further investigations and treatment after screening round [12] .…”