Association between Socio-Demographics and Clinical Profile with Therapy Options Received by Cervical Cancer Patients in Two Nigerian Tertiary Hospitals

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the associations between the socio-demographics, clinical profile and therapy options received by cervical cancer (CC) patients in Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH), Sokoto and Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Zaria. The study used a prospective longitudinal design with retrieved data for 157 eligible CC patients. Pearson’s correlation was used to test for association between patients’ socio-demographics, clinical characteristics and number of therapy options received while comparisons of proportions were carried out using Pearson’s Chi square. Results show that the mean age of the patients was 50.7±9.0 years and 43.3% of patients earned less than ₦50,000.00 per month. The results also reveal most of the 47.1% of patients presented with clinical stage III. Per Vaginal Bleeding (PVB) was the symptoms recorded for 88.5% of the patients while most patients (49.7%) received Chemotherapy (CT) as the major therapy option. There were significant associations between the level of income, (r=0.412, p<0.001), baseline number of symptoms, (r=0.200, p=0.012), number of symptoms after therapy, (r= -0.584, p<0.001) and the number of therapies received by the patients. Clinical disease-stage, baseline number of symptoms and level of income were found to be associated with the therapy options received by the patients.