Are we reaching women? Assessing cervical cancer screening knowledge and uptake of women at an out-patient clinic in South-South, Nigeria.

Abstract

Background: Regular screening is a critical component of cervical cancer prevention and management. The uptake of cervical cancer screening in sub-Saharan Africa including Nigeria is suboptimal. The study assessed the knowledge of cervical cancer screening among women and their uptake of papanicolaou smear test.

Methods: It was a hospital-based cross-sectional study involving 126 females aged 18 to 69 years. An interviewer administered questionnaire was used to obtain data on the sociodemographic characteristics, participants' knowledge of cervical cancer screening and their uptake of papanicolaou smear test. The level of statistical significance was evaluated at p< 0.05 at 95% confidence interval.

Results: The mean age of the participants was 45.10+-8.88. Participants' knowledge of cervical cancer screening was poor (22.1%). Many (68.8%) had no idea on when and how often the test should be done. Women who had ever done papanicolaou smear test was 15.1% and 70.1% stated not being aware as a reason for not doing the test. However, 73.0% were willing to undergo the test while the believe of being healthy (35.0%) and can't have the disease (35.0%) were reasons for unwillingness to undergo the test. Higher level of education was a predictor of participants' willingness to undergo the test (AOR=2.6.667;95%CI=1.374-5.177).

Conclusion: Participants had poor knowledge of cervical cancer screening with very few having undergone papanicolaou smear test. There is need to incorporate cervical cancer screening into existing primary care services targeting women of reproductive age to increase participation in screening.