The knowledge, attitude, practice and perceived barriers towards screening for premalignant cervical lesions among women aged 18years and above, in Songea urban, Ruvuma

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women worldwide. About 83% of the cases occur in developing countries, representing 15% of female cancers. Cervical cancer ranks as the most frequent cancer among women in Tanzania, and the most frequent cancer among women between 15 and 44 years of age with age specific incidence rate of 34 per 100,000. Majority of patients present to hospital with advanced disease with dismal survival rate. Carcinoma of the cervix is a preventable disease; its prevention, among other ways, is through screening and detection of premalignant stages of the disease and treatment. Screening test for cervical precancerous and cancerous lesions using visual inspection aided by acetic acid has been a suitable lowcost and a feasible alternative modality for control of cervical cancer in resource poor settings as compared to cytological and colposcopic screening in resource rich settings. Detection of the premalignant lesions however requires knowledge of the disease so that people can be aware and positive towards screening. Objectives: the broad objective of the study was to determine the knowledge, attitude, practice and the perceived barriers towards screening for premalignant cervical lesions among women aged 18 and above years in Songea urban, Ruvuma region. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in Songea from 9th to 30th September, 2010. Four wards were chosen to be studied. The chosen wards were Lizaboni, Mjini, Bombambili and Majengo. An interviewer administered structured vii questionnaire was used to gather information. Door to door interviewing of respondent meeting the criteria was done. Obtained information was summarized into SPSS data base. Data was cleaned and analyzed by SPSS version 16 for windows. Chi-square tests were used to find out the significant differences between variables. Results: Generally the knowledge was poor, attitude was positive to majority of respondents but again practice was found to be very poor. The results showed that 243(78.6%) had poor knowledge, 61(19.7%) had satisfactory knowledge and only 5(1.6%) had good knowledge. Overall 172(55.7%) of the respondents were positive about cervical cancer and screening for premalignant cervical lesion. Among 309 respondents, 14.2% only have ever been screened. Conclusion: The study has shown that there is a lack of knowledge on cervical cancer and screening for premalignant cervical lesion. There is also poor utilization of screening services available at the study area. The reason for poor practice among others was lack of knowledge and information. Recommendations: There is a need to promote cervical cancer screening among women by informing them on their susceptibility to cervical cancer and encouraging a belief that active and regular screening can detect cervical cancer at the pre-cancerous stage, hence enabling the early treatment and prevention of cancer development. There is also a need for provision of viii affordable screening services all over the country to enable women, after being motivated, to go for screening.