Awareness and Practice of Cervical Cancer and it's Screening Among Married Women of Syangja, Nepal

Abstract

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women worldwide. Close to half a million new cases are diagnosed each year and over 2.5 lakhs of women die due to cervical cancer annually. Current estimates indicate that every year 2332 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 1367 die from the disease. It is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality amongst the gynecological cancers worldwide. A cross-sectional descriptive design was used to assess the awareness and practice of cervical cancer screening among the married women of Syangja district. Proportionate stratified sampling was used to select the total 207 representative sample. Data was collected by using semi structured interview schedules and collected data were entered in Ms-Exel and analyzed using SPSS. The study result showed that majority 96% of the respondents had poor awareness and whereas none of the respondents had good awareness regarding the cervical cancer and its screening tests. The highest awareness was in the area of cervical cancer screening with mean percentage 61.11% whereas the least awareness was in the area of general aspects of cervical cancer with mean percentage 41.55%. Regarding practice of cervical cancer screening test 25.6% had performed it within 5 years, among them 50.93% of the respondents had undergone pap smear test. There was no association exists between the selected demographic variables and the level of awareness. Similarly there was no correlation exists between the level of awareness on cervical cancer and practice of cervical cancer screening. Majority of the women had poor awareness regarding the cervical cancer screening tests and significantly low practice of cervical cancer screening test. Key words: Awareness, Practice, Cervical cancer, cervical cancer screening