A study on awareness of cervical cancer among women of reproductive age group in urban slums of old Hubli, Karnataka, India

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Cervical Cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide with an estimated 530,000 new cases and 275,000 deaths with overall incidents mortality ratio of 52 percent. It is estimated that during 2008, 134,420 new cases of Cancer Cervix accoutred in India (incidents rate of 27 per lakh population) and about 72,825 women died of the decease (mortality rate 15.2 per lakh population). 1 The key to reducing Cervical Cancer morbidity and mortality is early detection and treatment of cervical precancerous lesions. In India also, both early detection and screening remains a major concern to the health workers in the absence of screening facilities coupled with low awareness level of women. Sexually transmitted infection ABSTRACT Background: Cervical Cancer tops the list of cancers among women worldwide with an estimated new case of 530,000 and a mortality of 275,000 deaths annually with an overall mortality ratio of 52%. This can be largely prevented by early detection and timely screening tests. Awareness and education regarding this, is the key to curtail the rise of such cancers in the community. Objectives of the studies were to assess knowledge, attitude regarding cervical cancer among women of reproductive age group and to correlate with various socio-demographic & marital factors. Methods: A cross-sectional study among 200 women of reproductive age group, chosen conveniently for a period of two months from April to June 2014 at urban slums of Old Hubli was undertaken by a pretested and semi-structured questionnaire. Data collected by a house to house survey, entered in Ms Excel, analysed by SPSS v.20 and presented as Percentages and Proportion. Chi-square was applied for finding out the associations and those with p-value <0.05 were taken as statistically significant. Results: Out of the 200 female respondents belonged majorly to the 25-34 years age group at 43%. About 57% were Muslims. 30% of the women were illiterate and 19% of them had up to high school level of education. Around 65.5% of the respondents were housewives by occupation. Majority of them belonged to the lower socioeconomic strata with 54% falling under Stage 4 of Modified B. G. Prasad classification The Chi-square for awareness of cervical cancer is, X2 = 0.0858, where p>0.05, which is not significant. The Chi-square for awareness about Pap smear is, X2= 0.2442, where p>0.05, which is not significant. Conclusions: The study showed that awareness about cervical cancer was poor among women and also its screening tests, H.P.V vaccinations were never heard of in the community.

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“…Similar results have been found in another study done by Bathija et al, 19 The current study clearly shows that most of the women were unaware of the risk factors of cervical cancer except smoking, alcohol use and family history. The lack of knowledge is mainly due to lack of population -based screening programs, inefficient mass media campaigns and cultural barriers wherein women in India feel shy to discuss the diseases affecting the sexual organs 20 .…”

Cervical cancer vaccination awareness and acceptance among the females of Punjab, Pakistan

“…However, the studies conducted in India reported that the female population answered multiple sexual partners (38.4%), early intercourse (36.2%), and smoking (63%) as risk factors for cervical cancer, which is in contrast to the current study. 28,30 The present study stated that only 3% of the female population knew about the screening of cervical cancer. This is in agreement with a recent study in Pakistan that stated only 5% of the general population had knowledge of the availability of screening for cervical cancer.…”

“…28,29 Another study revealed that only 3.5% of the female population had heard about cervical cancer through their relatives. 30 An extreme lack of knowledge is noted among the females of Punjab, Pakistan regarding the awareness of cervical cancer and its vaccination. Furthermore, the entire female population (100%) were unaware of the cause of cervical cancer, whereas the study performed in 2015 reported that 11.9% of the Odisha population knew about the cause of cervical cancer.…”

A cross sectional study on cervical cancer and its prevention among women of age group 25- 50 years in a rural area of south Tamilnadu, India.

“…This was far better than the 0.5% reported by Bathija et al in Urban slums of Hubli, Karnataka and 0% reported in Theni, Tamil Nadu by Sambath and Chandrasekaran. 14,15 This difference might be explained by the better literacy rate. Both these studies had more than 30% illiterate while our study did not have any illiterates.…”