Qualitative study of barriers to cervical cancer screening among Nigerian women

Abstract

ObjectivesTo explore the barriers to cervical cancer screening, focusing on religious and cultural factors, in order to inform group-specific interventions that may improve uptake of cervical cancer screening programmes.DesignWe conducted four focus group discussions among Muslim and Christian women in Nigeria.SettingDiscussions were conducted in two hospitals, one in the South West and the other in the North Central region of Nigeria.Participants27 Christian and 22 Muslim women over the age of 18, with no diagnosis of cancer.ResultsMost participants in the focus group discussions had heard about cervical cancer except Muslim women in the South Western region who had never heard about cervical cancer. Participants believed that wizardry, multiple sexual partners and inserting herbs into the vagina cause cervical cancer. Only one participant knew about the human papillomavirus. Among the Christian women, the majority of respondents had heard about cervical cancer screening and believed that it could be used to prevent cervical cancer. Participants mentioned religious and cultural obligations of modesty, gender of healthcare providers, fear of disclosure of results, fear of nosocomial infections, lack of awareness, discrimination at hospitals, and need for spousal approval as barriers to uptake of screening. These barriers varied by religion across the geographical regions.ConclusionsBarriers to cervical cancer screening vary by religious affiliations. Interventions to increase cervical cancer awareness and screening uptake in multicultural and multireligious communities need to take into consideration the varying cultural and religious beliefs in order to design and implement effective cervical cancer screening intervention programmes.

Barriers to Cancer Screening Uptake in Women: A Qualitative Study from Tamil Nadu, India

“…In previous literatures, cultural beliefs have been identified as a significant barrier (cancer as sin, the result of immorality) in women to undergo cancer screening as they prominently influence the level of understanding and knowledge about these cancers (de Cuevas et al, 2018;Gupta et al, 2015;Lee, 2015;Meana et al, 2001;Modibbo et al, 2016;Szalacha et al, 2017) and interventions addressing them have also produced results (Adunlin et al, 2019;Pratt et al, 2019). Financial concern was reported both in the current study and previous studies (Malhotra et al, 2016).…”

Barriers to cervical cancer screening uptake among rural women in South West Nigeria: A qualitative study

“…Shame was associated with disclosure of cervical cancer-related symptoms and screening results because it is a disease of the female reproductive system. Isa-Modibbo et al [4] also reported fear of disclosure of results and lack of awareness among the barriers to uptake of screening.…”

“…[10] The principal barriers associated with cervical cancer screening uptake reported in the literature for developing countries such as Nigeria are mainly a low level of awareness, widespread poverty, and lack of the requisite human and material resources to support cytology-based programmes and poverty. [3,11,12] Isa-Modibbo et al [4] explored the religious and cultural barriers to cervical screening in two hospitals, from the South West and North Central regions of Nigeria. The study reported that barriers to cervical cancer screening vary by religious affiliation.…”

Knowledge and Practices of Cervical Cancer among Married Men in Rural Phalombe?

“…Some of the participants in that study were from Mangochi district which is largely inhabited by Muslims. Evidence shows that Muslims have a strong belief that their wives nakedness is strictly to be seen by their husbands as such a male provider would not be ideal to perform cervical cancer screening [40][41][42].…”