Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Towards Cervical Cancer and its Screening Among Women from Tribal Population: a Community-Based Study from Southern India

Abstract

Background Cervical cancer continues to be a leading cancer among women in India. Despite availability of various screening techniques, majority of Indian women remain unscreened for cancer cervix. The increasing incidence could be attributed to the lack of awareness regarding cervical cancer screening and paucity of organized screening facilities in the country. This study assessed the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) towards cervical cancer screening among tribal women of coastal Karnataka, southern India. Methods A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 1140 women aged 20-65 years from three tribes. Information on their KAP towards cervical cancer screening was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. Results Mean age of the participants was 39.8 ± 10.1 years. Although 82.9% of the participants reported to have heard of cervical cancer, 51% were aware that the disease could be prevented, and only 2.3% knew that it can be detected at an early stage. Over 75% of the participants did not have adequate knowledge regarding cervical cancer. However, majority of them (99.9%) had a favourable attitude towards cervical cancer screening. None of them had undergone cervical cancer screening prior to the study. The knowledge scores were significantly associated with age group, marital status, education level, socioeconomic status and tribal community of the participants (p < 0.05). Conclusion Overall knowledge regarding cervical cancer among the surveyed women was poor, though they exhibited a positive attitude. This calls for a sustained health education and screening program to create awareness and improve the uptake of cervical cancer screening among these women.

The effectiveness of a model-based health education program on genital warts preventive behaviors: a quasi-experimental study

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Knowledge and practice for cervical cancer among female primary school teachers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia: A cross-sectional phone-based survey

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Cervical cancer knowledge, awareness and related health behaviours amongst women of reproductive age in Kiambu County, Kenya: a cross-sectional study

“…Regarding participant awareness, those who had heard of cervical cancer screening, those who knew a place where screening services were provided, as well as those who had heard of HPV testing and vaccination were more likely to have undergone cervical cancer screening. A high level of awareness of cervical cancer and related factors has been reported amongst adult women in KAP studies undertaken in Tharaka Nithi and Isiolo Counties within Kenya (80%), Southern India (82.9%) and Eastern Uganda (88.2%) (Gatumo et al, 2018 ; Ghosh et al, 2021 ; Mukama et al, 2017 ). In addition, familiarity with HPV vaccines has been shown to influence cervical cancer preventive behaviour in studies undertaken amongst Zambian women (Liu et al, 2012 ; Nyambe et al, 2019 ).…”