Knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding cervical cancer screening among women attending Tshilidzini Hospital, Limpopo Province

Abstract

Cervical cancer countinues to be a significant cause of morbidity and mortality, particularly in the developing world, due to a lack of effective population screening. Although cervical cancer screening is an effective method for the reduction of the incidence and mortality of the malignancy, the unfortunate observation on the ground is that the screening attendance rate at Tshilidzini Hospital has been far from satisfactory. The main purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding cervical cancer screening among women attending Tshilidzini Hospital in Limpopo Province. The study thus included all women above the age of 18 years attending Tshilidzini Hospital Outpatient Department and Tshilidzi Gateway Clinic. A quantitative approach was adopted. Non-probability convenient sampling was used to select participants and questionnaires were used to collect data. All data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, Version 22). The study established that the majority of the women who were aware of cervical cancer did not know that it was preventable and did not take a pap smear during the previous six months. It was also found that most of the women were not aware of the dangers of cervical cancer. The majority of the women who took a pap smear were aged between thirty and forty. The main mode of information dissemination was found to be nurses and the media. It was concluded that women had little knowledge about cervical cancer screening and even though a majority of them had a positivie attitude towards pap smear, they did not practice it. The study made a number of recommendations that were intended to improve the knowledge, attitude and practice of cervical cancer screening. These recommendations call for more campaigns to reach rural and urban women and the training of more nurses specialising on Oncology.