Assessment of Awareness, Attitude and Practice of Cervical Cancer Screening and Prevention of Cervical Cancer among Azikoro Women

Background: Cervical cancer is an important public health problem caused by Human Papilloma virus. It is one of the most frequent cancers among women, causing morbidity and mortality. An estimated 468,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, with 80% of these instances occurring in emerging and underdeveloped nations.Though it is a preventable disease most women with cervical cancer present in an advance stage due to lack of awareness, poor attitude towards cervical screening and low uptake of human papiloma virus (HPV) vaccines among females. This study examined the extent of awareness, attitude and practice of cervical cancer screening as well as prevention of cervical cancer among women in Azikoro community.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted; data was collected from 350 respondents in Azikoro community using a semi structured questionnaire interviewer administered and analyzed using the statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 21. The study population comprised women between the ages of 15 to 65 years in different households and shops in Azikoro community.

Results: The results of the study showed low level of awareness of cervical cancer (43.1 %) and even much lower level of awareness of cervical cancer screening (28.6 %). On assessment of attitude to screening, 2.1% had performed cervical cancer screening with the highest screening type being Pap smear. Hindrance to cervical cancer screening was acknowledged by the women to be caused by financial constraints, fear of the procedure and its out come as well as lack of awareness in general, about 1.4 % of the women have been immunized as revealed by this study which is low and thus increases the risk percentage of women of Azikoro community. Although there was low level of practice of cervical cancer vaccination, 93.7 % showed willingness to be vaccinated if the vaccine is made available and. Further more 93.1 % were willing to allow their daughters to be immunized. We recommend that there should be more awareness campaign about cervical cancer, screening and vaccination by the Government and other health organization on the need and merit of screening and vaccination.

Conclusion: The study revealed moderately low level of awareness of cervical cancer among women in Azikoro community, however, awareness of cervical cancer screening and attitude to cervical cancer screening was very poor. There was low incidence of human papilloma virus vaccination however a high level of willingness to be vaccinated was expressed by the respondents if vaccines were made available and free. Traditional and spiritual homes have a strong influence of the health seeking behaviour among the respondents.