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Most people are infected with HPV shortly after the onset of sexual activity. The screening rate has not reached the WHO's target. This study seeks to assess community women's care-seeking behavior toward cervical cancer screening participation. A cross-sectional design was employed, community women who met the criteria for inclusion were given a self-developed questionnaire conveniently. Results show that the majority (51.9%) of women were between the ages of 21-29, majority (83.0%) had only one sexual partner, majority (75.0%) were extremely poor with very low yearly income of less than 284,700.00 Naira, and 19.3% experienced gynecological symptoms. Majority (78.5%) have the fear of being diagnosed with cancer, and 69.6% fear exposing their genital area. Women agreed that HPV is the causative organism of cervical cancer and husband do not allow someone to touch their wives’ private parts. They moderately agreed that a woman must obtain consent from her husband before going for screening, that exposing their private part is culturally inappropriate. Only 14.1% of those surveyed had ever undergone a cervical cancer screening. Among the respondents who had screened, 57.9% had bad experience. There is a significant difference between age group and screening where majority who had screened were older women within the age group 30-65 years (X2=8.402; P-value=0.005) and having gynecological symptoms has positive influence on screening participation (X2=7.422; P-value=0.012). The majority (92.6%) believed that husband involvement and the caregiver's friendly attitude are among other facilitating conditions to screening. In conclusion, there was low screening participation among community women. Women's knowledge of cervical cancer and screening did not translate into participating in screening. Low socioeconomic status has a significant impact on screening, screening rates were higher among older women than younger ones, and experiencing gynecological symptoms has a positive impact on screening. It was therefore recommended that interventions aimed at enhancing care seeking behavior based on women's needs be implemented.

Introduction: Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women globally and the second in low-Middle income countries, its screening rate is yet to reach 70% WHO target. Most interventions that proved effective in improving screening participation in some communities did not achieve the desired behavioural outcome in some settings. Aim: This study aimed at evaluating the care seeking behaviour interventions on cervical cancer screening participation. Method: A Pragmatic Multiphase Mixed Methods Design was adopted for this study and three phases of Human Centered Design process was used for data collection. Thematic analysis was used for qualitative data while SPSS for the quantitative data analysis. Results: Findings indicate that most (57.4%) participants were within 30–65 years, most (81.0%) were extremely poor with annual income < 284,700.00 Naira. Before intervention, most (77.4%) were afraid of exposing their private parts, 75.9% were afraid of being diagnosed with cervical cancer; 52.1% felt the procedure was embarrassing, 53.2% felt the procedure was painful; 11.2% had ever screened; majority (88.8%) said involving husband, (86.5%) welcoming attitude of care provider are among facilitators for screening. Screening participation improved from 11.2% preintervention to 29.7% postintervention (average mean screening score from 1.89 ± 0.316 to 1.7000 ± 0.458), all participants who screened postintervention said the procedure was not embarrassing, painful, and were not afraid of procedure and screening room. In conclusion, screening habit in the community was low preintervention as this may result from social norms, affect, utility, influence of sociodemographic variables and lack of facilitating conditions. Care-seeking behaviour interventions has significantly increased screening participation.

Introduction Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women globally and the second most common cancer in low- to middle-income countries, and its screening rate is yet to reach the 70% WHO target. Most interventions that proved effective in improving screening participation in some communities did not achieve the desired behavioral outcome in some settings. Aim This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of care-seeking behavior interventions on cervical cancer screening participation. Method A pragmatic multiphase mixed methods design was adopted for this study, and three phases of the human-centered design process were used for data collection. Deductive thematic analysis was used for qualitative data, while SPSS was used for quantitative data analysis. Results The findings show a significant relationship between participants’ tribes p values (0.03) 0.05 and screening participation. Before the intervention, most (77.4%) were afraid of exposing their private parts; 75.9% were afraid of being diagnosed with cervical cancer; and the majority felt the procedure was embarrassing and painful. Free screening, awareness, and knowledge, offering transport, the use of influencers, and sample collection by a female care provider are among other facilitators to screening. Screening participation improved from 11.2% preintervention to 29.7% postintervention (average mean screening score from 1.890.316 to 1.70000.458). All participants who were screened postintervention said the procedure was not embarrassing or painful and that they were not afraid of the procedure or the screening environment. Conclusion In conclusion, screening habits in the community were low before intervention, as this may have resulted from women’s feelings and past experiences with screening services. Sociodemographic variables may not directly predict screening participation. Care-seeking behavior interventions have significantly increased screening participation postintervention.

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.