Cervical cancer awareness and its corelates among young females at a tertiary care center: A cross sectional study

Abstract

Background: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in low and middle-income countries, owing to chronic infection with an extremely common family of Human Papilloma Virus. Despite screening and primary preventive efforts, cervical cancer is detected at advanced stages, causing death. It's important to assess young women's knowledge of cervical cancer symptoms and signs and the barriers that prevent them from reporting them. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the general OPD of a tertiary care hospital on 247 females aged 25 to 45. Data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire modified with the Cancer awareness measure (CAM) toolkit version 2.1. Result and conclusion: The findings indicated that 52 percent of participants had a poor understanding of the symptoms and warning signs of cervical cancer. No socio-demographic characteristics such as age, family type, socio-economic position, education, or cancer family history were associated with cervical cancer knowledge. Females were more comfortable discussing health issues with their husbands than other family members. Stigma, lack of understanding, financial knowledge, neglect, fear of separation, and carcinoma-related dread hinder symptom disclosure. Based on the findings, we advocate partner sensitization and involvement to promote reproductive health care. Training programmes for teenagers, grassroots workers like ASHA and Anganwadi Workers, teachers, Women Self Help Groups, NGOs etc should include information about cervical cancer's danger signs, risk factors, and symptoms