Abstract
IntroductionCervical cancer remains one of the leading health hazards affecting a majority women across the globe. The situation is even more, preoccupying particularly in areas where screening programmes and services are absent. The World Health Organization (WHO) says “cervical cancer is the fourth most frequent cancer in women, with an estimated 570,000 new cases diagnosed in 2018 which represents 6.6% of all female cancers. Approximately 90% of deaths from cervical cancer occurred in low- and middle-income countries”. Despite the high mortality rate from cervical cancer globally, the trend could be reduced through a comprehensive approach that includes prevention, early diagnosis, effective screening and treatment programmes. In Cameroon, the prevalence of cervical cancer is 24% among women of reproductive age. An estimated 1,993 new cases are recorded annually in Cameroon with 1676 deaths. Despite this precarious situation, the uptake in cervical cancer screening service remains poor and stands at 19.6% in Cameroon. It is against this background that this paper evaluates the uptake of cervical cancer among women aged 25-65 years in the Kumbo West Health District (KWHD). Specifically, this study assesses the knowledge of women in this health district on cervical cancer and determines factors that affect the uptake of cervical cancer screening services.MethodsThis study is a cross-sectional study in the KWHD involving 253 consented women between the ages 25 to 65 years. The principal research instrument was a three-part questionnaire designed to collect information on socio-demographic profile, cervical cancer knowledge and associated factors for uptake in cervical cancer screening. Data was entered in MS Excel and analysed using Excel. Results were presented in tables and figures.ResultsOur study reveals that a majority of the participants (74.70%) had heard of cervical cancer and 43.48% had undergone cervical cancer screening. Again, 24.51% and 29.25% of the participants respectively could not identify any risk factor and symptom of cervical cancer.ConclusionThe study revealed that the uptake of cervical cancer screening in KWHD is higher than the national uptake. The level of awareness on the risk factors and symptoms of cervical cancer is low, posing a need to put more emphasis on educating and creating awareness of cervical cancer among communities on risk factors, prevention measures and signs and symptoms in all the health areas of the KWHD.
Highlights
Cervical cancer is a malignant proliferation of the cells of the uterine cervix and can be treated if diagnosed earlier
The study revealed a low level of cervical cancer screening among women in the Kumbo West Health District (KWHD) though higher than the national level
The level of awareness of risk factors and symptoms was low so there is need to put more emphasis on educating and creating awareness among communities about cervical cancer, risk factors, signs and symptoms in all the Health Areas of the Kumbo west health district
Summary
Cervical cancer is a malignant proliferation of the cells of the uterine cervix and can be treated if diagnosed earlier. 266 000 women died of cervical cancer worldwide; almost 9 out of every 10 of these, or 231,000 women in total, lived and died in low- to middle- income countries It is the leading cause of cancer deaths among women in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with approximately 34.8 new cases diagnosed annually per 100,000 women and 22.5 deaths per 100,000 annually [2]. In 2009, estimates revealed that 43 000 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer and 274 000 died from the disease in South Africa [3] On her part, in 2014 Ethiopia had about 27.19 million women above the age of 15years projected to be at risk of developing cervical cancer. Cervical cancer screening coverage in Kenya for all women within the ages 18 to 69 years is only 3.2% [5]
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