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Summary: Studies conducted worldwide have shown that cervical cancer is a major public health problem and high prevalence among women with poor knowledge and low uptake of cervical cancer screening. Although studies in Ethiopia re scare, review of biopsy results have shown that cervical cancer is the most prevalence cancer among women and high cause of morbidity and mortality in the country followed by breast cancer. Despite a major health problem in Ethiopia, majority of women are not knowledgeable.
Objective: To assess knowledge of cervical cancer among maternal health care service users at Felege Hiwot Referral Hospital, Bahir Dar, Northwest Ethiopia.
Methods: Institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted from December 2015 to January 2016. A simple random sampling method was used to select the study participants and a total of 660 women were interviewed using structured and pre tested questionnaire. The data was checked analyzed using SPSS version 21. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used. To determine the effect of factors on knowledge of cervical cancer, multivariable regression model was used. Degree of association between independent and dependent variables was assessed with a 95% confidence level and p-value less than 0.05 was used to determine statistical significance.
Results: Of all the respondents, 493 (79.3%) of them had heard about cervical cancer and only 3030 (48.7%) were knowledgeable about the disease. Age, place of residence, education and ever-talked about cervical cancer with health care providers were significantly associated with knowledge of cervical cancer. Knowledge was 2.4 times higher for those 30-38 years and 3.8 times for 39-49 years compared to 21-29 years of age (AOR=2.4 (1.641, 3.674, p value 0.001 and (AOR=3.8 (1.875, 8.073, p value .001); respectively. Women who lived in urban areas were more knowledgeable than those who lived in rural areas. The odds of knowledge were 2 times higher than rural residents (AOR= 2.6 (2.264, 5.806, p value 0.001). Women who talked about cervical cancer with health care providers were about 3.685 times more likely to be knowledgeable than women not not talking (AOR= 3.685 (1.934, 7.022, p value 0.001).
Conclusion and recommendation: The study has verified low level of knowledge of cervical cancer. In conclusion, more efforts must be focused on intervening and in providing proper education for women focusing on creating awareness and raising knowledge about this dangerous health issue. |
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