Revista de diagnóstico del cáncer

Abstracto

Knowledge and Attitude toward Cervical Cancer Screening of Marketers (Women) at Chiwempala Market in Chingola, Copperbelt, Zambia

Audrey Mulenga*, Kwangu M

Background: Cervical cancer is a cancer of the cervix. It is usually asymptomatic in the early stages but claims many lives once in progression. Literature shows that it remains to be a public health problem because of its morbidity and the mortality rates especially in the developing countries. According to literature lack of knowledge on the cervical cancer screening program has contributed to the rise in the incidence of the disease. Zambia has the world’s second highest annual incidence and mortality rates. However there is scant information in studies conducted to assess the level of knowledge on cervical cancer. Method: A cross sectional study was conducted in Chingola (Chiwempala market) among 200 women to assess the level of knowledge and attitude towards cervical cancer screening. A systematic random sampling was used and information was only collected from women that were willing to participate. The quantitative data was analyzed using Statistical package for social science. The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge and the attitude that the marketers have towards the screening program. This was in order to ascertain whether the lack of knowledge has a role to play in the rising prevalence of cervical cancer. Furthermore, it was also help determine the attitude that women have towards the screening program. Results: Among the 200 women that were interviewed, 87% had heard about cervical cancer and 13% had never heard of it. Furthermore 82.5% had heard of cervical cancer screening while 17.5% had never heard about it. However, the study reviewed that only 25% had been screened before and the remaining 75% had never been screened. Amongst the women that had never been screened 18% of the women said their reason for not going for screening was lack of time as they were always busy with their businesses. However, 57.5% attested their not being screened to lack of proper knowledge. The results in this study revealed that most women had merely heard the terms “cervical cancer screening”, but however had inadequate knowledge about cervical cancer and cervical cancer screening. Recommendation: This therefore is an indication that despite the majority of these women having heard about cervical cancer, very few had a clear understanding of what it really is. Thus an initiative has to be made were sensitization on cervical cancer and cervical screening should be done in smaller groups. This will enable them have a better understanding. Nevertheless, the results from this research may have been limited by the fact that only marketers were targeted. Therefore there is need for more researches on the same topic to be conducted among different classes of women.