Abstract
BackgroundThough obesity is associated with some malignancies, its association with cervical cancer is still inconclusive. This study was aimed at determining if there was an association between obesity and cervical epithelial cell abnormalities (CEA).MethodsThis was a cross-sectional comparative study of obese and non-obese women at the Cervical Cancer Screening Clinic, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu between January, 2012 and June, 2013. The participants whose body mass index (BMI) were ≥ 30 kg/m2 were classified as obese (200 women) while those whose BMI were < 30 kg/m2 were classified as non-obese (200 women) and the two groups were consecutively recruited at the ratio of 1:1. Pap smear cytology, random blood sugar (RBS) and human immune-deficiency virus (HIV) screening was done for all the participants. Data was analyzed with SPSS version 20. Categorical variables were analyzed using McNemar’s test and Chi-squared test. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the influence of socio-demographic characteristics on cervical epithelial cell abnormalities. The level of significance was set at ≤0.05.ResultsAmong the obese women, 152(76%) had negative for intra-epithelial lesion or malignancy (NILM) while 48(24%) had cervical epithelial cell abnormalities (CEA). Also 182(91%) non-obese women had NILM while the remaining 18(9%) had CEA. The prevalence of CEA among all the study participants was 16.5%. There was an association between obesity and CEA[OR (95%CI) = 1.353(1.013–1.812); P-value = 0.04].CEA were significantly more common among women who were 40 years and above and single/separated women as well as widows (P-value = < 0.05).ConclusionThere was an association between obesity and CEA. This underscores the need for a positive behavioural change among women in order to stem the tide of this public health problem.
Highlights
Though obesity is associated with some malignancies, its association with cervical cancer is still inconclusive
This study was aimed at determining if there was an association between obesity and cervical epithelial cell abnormalities among the women who presented for Pap smear cytology in Enugu, South- East Nigeria
A total of 659 women, who accounted for 58% of clients that had Pap smear cytology at the cervical cancer screening clinic within the study period, were referred from other clinics and so were not involved in this study
Summary
Though obesity is associated with some malignancies, its association with cervical cancer is still inconclusive. There is currently an increase in the prevalence of obesity globally. Obesity is regarded as a risk factor for many cancers [2, 3]. Previous studies have shown that obesity may increase the risk of cervical cancer [5,6,7,8]. Cervical adenocarcinoma has been linked to hormonal risk factors and has been reported to be increasing in incidence in recent years [4, 9, 10]. A recent meta-analysis showed a weak association between obesity and cervical cancer [11]. The authors of this meta-analysis requested for more studies in this topic in order to strengthen or refute the current evidence
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