Effect of Age and Parity on Knowledge of Cervical Cancer Screening Among Women of Child Bearing Age in Anambra State

Abstract

Identification of characteristics of women in terms of age and parity as related to their uptake of existing screening services can give significant data to forming cervical cancer screening administrations. This study was aimed to assess the effect of age and parity on knowledge of cervical cancer screening among women of child bearing age in Anambra State. The study adopted a quasi-experimental research design.The study was conducted at Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital Awka and General Hospital Onitsha between June 2019 to September 2019.Using multi-stage (purposive) sampling technique, the sample size for this study consisted of one hundred and eighty four (184) women (134) subjects for experimental group and 50 subjects for control group) attending antenatal in public hospitals in Anambra State. The instrument contained five questions on demographic data of the respondents, questions on knowledge of cervical cancer and practice questions with four point response options. The reliability of the instrument was established by using Cronbach alpha for estimating the internal consistency of the instrument. Data entry and analysis were done using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and inferential statistics (ANCOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.The results showed that all the women of different age groups and women of all parity levels benefitted from the exposure to health education programme. The study therefore concludes that exposing women of child bearing age to health education programme improved the practice of cervical cancer screening practice. The knowledge of cervical cancer, knowledge of cervical cancer screening and knowledge of modes of prevention of cervical cancer are critical in determining cervical cancer screening uptake among the women. It is thus concluded that exposing women of child bearing age to health education programme improved the cervical cancer screening practice than not exposing them to any treatment. With adequate knowledge of cervical cancer and a positive perception of cervical cancer screening, utilization of cervical cancer screening services is uniform among women of all parity level.