Knowledge and attitude towards cervical cancer among reproductive age group women in Gondar town, North West Ethiopia

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Abstract

Background

Cervical cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer and the third leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide. Nearly 83% of the world’s new cases and 85% of all cervical cancer-related deaths occur in developing countries. It is primarily caused by human papilloma virus (HPV); a sexually transmitted pathogen that could be prevented with safe sexual practice and using vaccines among others.

The aim of the study was to assess the knowledge and attitude of reproductive age group women towards cervical cancer and its prevention in Gondar town.

Methods

A descriptive community based cross-sectional study was carried out. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was employed for data collection. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select the study participants. Descriptive statistics like frequency, mean and percentage were computed using SPSS version 20 software program.

Results

Seven hundred and seventy women ( n = 770) participated with a response rate of 100%. More than half, (65.1%) of the participants claim hearing of cervical cancer. However, majority (> 80%) of them lack knowledge that HPV is a causative agent of cervical cancer which is extremely worrying as the most important way to prevent cervical cancer is blocking HPV infection. Of those who had heard of it, only 107 (21.4%) said they have heard about Pap smear test. From them, less than half, 47 (43.9%) said that an apparently healthy woman should undergo the test at least three times in her life. This means in addition to the lack of information about the test, majority of those who had heard about it didn’t know how many times they should have the test in their life. Overall, only 153 (19.87%) of the participants were found having a good knowledge of cervical cancer and its prevention.

Conclusion

The overall knowledge of women towards cervical cancer was inadequate. On the other hand, those who had heard about it had a somewhat encouraging attitude. Mass media was the major source of information. But, any public health problem cannot be solved in isolation. Hence, initiating large-scale awareness campaigns is recommended.

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Most cited references 24

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Worldwide burden of cervical cancer in 2008.

M Arbyn, X Castellsagué, S de Sanjosé … (2011)

The knowledge that persistent human papillomavirus infection is the main cause of cervical cancer has resulted in the development of assays that detect nucleic acids of the virus and prophylactic vaccines. Up-to-date and reliable data are needed to assess impact of existing preventive measures and to define priorities for the future. Best estimates on cervical cancer incidence and mortality are presented using recently compiled data from cancer and mortality registries for the year 2008. There were an estimated 530,000 cases of cervical cancer and 275,000 deaths from the disease in 2008. It is the third most common female cancer ranking after breast (1.38 million cases) and colorectal cancer (0.57 million cases). The incidence of cervical cancer varies widely among countries with world age-standardised rates ranging from 50 per 100,000. Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death among women in Eastern, Western and Middle Africa; Central America; South-Central Asia and Melanesia. The highest incidence rate is observed in Guinea, with ∼6.5% of women developing cervical cancer before the age of 75 years. India is the country with the highest disease frequency with 134,000 cases and 73 000 deaths. Cervical cancer, more than the other major cancers, affects women <45 years. In spite of effective screening methods, cervical cancer continues to be a major public health problem. New methodologies of cervical cancer prevention should be made available and accessible for women of all countries through well-organised programmes.

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Breast and cervical cancer in 187 countries between 1980 and 2010: a systematic analysis.

Mohammad Forouzanfar, Kyle J Foreman, Allyne M Delossantos … (2011)

Breast and cervical cancer are important causes of mortality in women aged ≥15 years. We undertook annual age-specific assessments of breast and cervical cancer in 187 countries. We systematically collected cancer registry data on mortality and incidence, vital registration, and verbal autopsy data for the period 1980-2010. We modelled the mortality-to-incidence (MI) ratio using a hierarchical model. Vital registration and verbal autopsy were supplemented with incidence multiplied by the MI ratio to yield a comprehensive database of mortality rates. We used Gaussian process regression to develop estimates of mortality with uncertainty by age, sex, country, and year. We used out-of-sample predictive validity to select the final model. Estimates of incidence with uncertainty were also generated with mortality and MI ratios. Global breast cancer incidence increased from 641,000 (95% uncertainty intervals 610,000-750,000) cases in 1980 to 1,643,000 (1,421,000-1,782,000) cases in 2010, an annual rate of increase of 3·1%. Global cervical cancer incidence increased from 378,000 (256,000-489,000) cases per year in 1980 to 454,000 (318,000-620,000) cases per year in 2010-a 0·6% annual rate of increase. Breast cancer killed 425,000 (359,000-453,000) women in 2010, of whom 68,000 (62,000-74,000) were aged 15-49 years in developing countries. Cervical cancer death rates have been decreasing but the disease still killed 200,000 (139,000-276,000) women in 2010, of whom 46,000 (33,000-64,000) were aged 15-49 years in developing countries. We recorded pronounced variation in the trend in breast cancer mortality across regions and countries. More policy attention is needed to strengthen established health-system responses to reduce breast and cervical cancer, especially in developing countries. Susan G Komen for the Cure and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Epidemiology and prevention of human papillomavirus and cervical cancer in sub-Saharan Africa: a comprehensive review.

Karly S. Louie, Silvia de Sanjosé, Philippe Mayaud (2009)

To identify the gaps of knowledge and highlight the challenges and opportunities for controlling cervical cancer in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). A comprehensive review of peer-reviewed literature to summarize the epidemiological data on human papillomavirus (HPV) and invasive cervical cancer (ICC) by HIV status, to review feasible and effective cervical screening strategies, and to identify barriers in the introduction of HPV vaccination in SSA. ICC incidence in SSA is one of the highest in the world with an age-standardized incidence rate of 31.0 per 100,000 women. The prevalence of HPV16/18, the two vaccine preventable-types, among women with ICC, does not appear to differ by HIV status on a small case series. However, there are limited data on the role of HIV in the natural history of HPV infection in SSA. Cervical screening coverage ranges from 2.0% to 20.2% in urban areas and 0.4% to 14.0% in rural areas. There are few large scale initiatives to introduce population-based screening using cytology, visual inspection or HPV testing. Only one vaccine safety and immunogenicity study is being conducted in Senegal and Tanzania. Few data are available on vaccine acceptability, health systems preparedness and vaccine cost-effectiveness and long-term impact. Additional data are needed to strengthen ICC as a public health priority to introduce, implement and sustain effective cervical cancer control in Africa.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Ayelign Mengesha:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1505-9390

Ayelignmengesha59@gmail.com

Anteneh Messele: antenehmessele33@gmail.com

Biruk Beletew: birukkelemb@gmail.com

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Public Health

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Public Health

Title: BMC Public Health

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1471-2458

Publication date (Electronic): 11 February 2020

Publication date PMC-release: 11 February 2020

Publication date Collection: 2020

Volume: 20

Electronic Location Identifier: 209

Affiliations

[1 ]College of Health Sciences, Department of Nursing, Woldia University, Weldia, Ethiopia

[2 ]ISNI 0000 0000 8539 4635, GRID grid.59547.3a, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Department of Nursing, , University of Gondar, ; Gondar, Ethiopia

[3 ]College of Health Sciences, Department of Nursing, Woldia University, Weldia, Ethiopia

Author information

Ayelign Mengesha http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1505-9390

Article

Publisher ID: 8229

DOI: 10.1186/s12889-020-8229-4

PMC ID: 7014652

PubMed ID: 32046681

SO-VID: e8e9d7a8-275d-43f5-acc7-ed505688e317

License:

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

History

Date received : 19 March 2019

Date accepted : 16 January 2020

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Public health

Keywords: cervical cancer,knowledge,attitude,reproductive age group women,gondar town

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Public health

Keywords: cervical cancer, knowledge, attitude, reproductive age group women, gondar town

Knowledge and attitude towards cervical cancer among reproductive age group women in Gondar town, North West Ethiopia

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Indigenous Knowledge

Most cited references 24

Worldwide burden of cervical cancer in 2008.

Breast and cervical cancer in 187 countries between 1980 and 2010: a systematic analysis.

Epidemiology and prevention of human papillomavirus and cervical cancer in sub-Saharan Africa: a comprehensive review.

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