Care-Seeking Behavior in Cervical Cancer Screening among Gwafan Community Women, Jos, Plateau State

Abstract

Background: Most people are infected with human papillomavirus (HPV) shortly after their sexual debut. Cervical cancer is preventable through screening, yet the screening rate is lower than the 70% WHO target. This study aimed to assess the care-seeking behavior of Gwafan community women in cervical cancer screening participation. Methods: A convergent mixed method was adopted for this study. Thematic analysis was used for qualitative data, while SPSS was used for quantitative data analysis. Results: The results show a significant relationship between age group and screening where older women were the most screened (X2=6.290; P-value=0.012), and no significant difference in screening participation amongst women who experienced gynecological symptoms and those that did not experience (X2=1.168; P-value=0.281). Most women (77.4%) have fears of diagnosis, uncovering the private areas of their bodies, painful procedures, and the feelings of shamefulness. They agreed that having more than one sexual partner is the risk cause, they moderately agreed that the outcome of cervical cancer is death. Majority agreed that a woman must obtain consent from her husband before going for screening and that husbands do not allow another person to touch their wives’ private areas. Conclusion: The majority of the community women did not screen for cervical cancer, which may result from low income, feelings, social norms, negative beliefs and expectations, and past experiences. Screening participation among older women was higher, and experiencing gynecological symptoms has no positive influence on screening participation. This study formed the baseline for care-seeking behaviour interventions to improve screening participation.