Cervical Cancer Care Seeking Behaviour Among Community Women, Jos-North, Plateau State

Abstract

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.

Care-Seeking Behavior in Cervical Cancer Screening among Gwafan Community Women, Jos, Plateau State

“…Regarding sociodemographic variables, findings indicate that the majority (57.4%) were older women, and most (81%) women were extremely poor with a yearly income of <693.5 USD. This study found a significant relationship between age group and screening, as seen where the majority of those that had ever screened were older women not similar to (Mungai et al, 2016) where the majority of those who screened were younger women, congruent with (Ari, Dioso & Sotunsa, 2023). Concerning the clinical variable for screening, only 6.5% experienced gynecological symptoms, which corroborates with the qualitative data as only 3 participants experienced gynecological symptoms in some quotes:…”

“…"My own is toilet infection, itching" 11. This study found that experiencing gynecological symptoms did not significantly improve screening participation (X = 1.168; P-value = 0.281), which is contrary to (Ari, Dioso & Sotunsa, 2023;Ndejjo et al, 2017;Momberg et al, 2017).…”

“…Women moderately agreed that Human papilloma virus is the cause (M = 2.69) contrast with (Yang et al, 2019) where participants don't know the causative organism. They moderately agreed that outcome of cervical cancer is death (M = 3.18) in line with (Gitonga et al, 2022;Ari et al, 2023). Women slightly agreed that evil spirit (M = 1.63), lack of blood supply to the uterus after delivery (M = 1.912) is the cause of cervical cancer, and cervical cancer is not preventable (M = 2.05).…”

“…Regarding women's feelings, findings show that majority felt that the procedure for screening is shameful in line with (' Chen et al, 2018;Lor et al, 2013;Vhuromu et al, 2018;Kue et al, 2020;Des Marais et al, 2022;Gitonga et al, 2022''-;Lunsford et al, 2017;Ari, Dioso & Sotunsa, 2023), 53.2% feel the procedure is painful as found (Vhuromu et al, 2018;Ari, Dioso & Sotunsa, 2023), fear of uncovering ones private parts, and screening procedures and environment which is congruent with ' Ari, Dioso & Sotunsa, 2023Ubah et al, 2022(Chen et al, 2018Lor et al, 2017;Ari, Dioso & Sotunsa, 2023;Ubah et al, 2022), 75.9% fears of diagnosis (Yang et al, 2019;Ari, Dioso & Sotunsa, 2023;Ubah et al, 2022). This finding corroborates with the qualitative data revealed fears of diagnosis, procedure, and screening environment, and of the disease, as quoted: "It's ok but there is this fear of detecting traces, going there is fearful" 01.…”

“…Screening can detect precancerous cells, which, when treated, prevent the transformation of these cells into malignant cells, yet the rate of screening is lower than the WHO target. Low economic status (US Preventive Services Task Force, 2018; Ari, Dioso & Sotunsa, 2023), affect, cultural norms, and negative beliefs and expectations may negatively influence screening participation, while experiencing gynecological symptoms (Momberg et al, 2017;Ndejjo et al, 2017) may increase participation.…”