Evaluating the effect of an educational program on increasing cervical cancer screening behavior among rural women in Guilan, Iran

Sedighe Bab Eghbal,Parisa Kasmaei,Seyedeh Maryam Attari,Zahra Atrkar Roshan,Roghieh Valipour,Mahmood Karimy

doi:10.1186/s12905-020-01020-7

Sedighe Bab Eghbal, Parisa Kasmaei + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-020-01020-7

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Abstract

BackgroundCervical cancer is one of the major health problems and the third prevalent cancer in women all around the world. As a simple, inexpensive, and with no side-effects, Pap test is a reliable way to screen cervical cancer. This study aimed to investigate, the effects of educational intervention based on the Health Belief Model (HBM) on doing Pap smear tests among the rural women of the north of Iran.MethodsIn a quasi-experimental study, 160 rural women were randomly divided into control and experimental groups to experience a three-session intervention. The experimental group received the usual educational programs of rural health center and educational programs based on the HBM constructs through personal consultation, asking/answering questions, and an educational pamphlet. The control group, received the usual educational programs of rural health center. The post-test data were collected 2 months after the intervention and analyzed in SPSS-18.ResultsBefore the intervention, there was no significant difference between the control and experimental groups regarding the mean score of knowledge, performance and constructs of the HBM. After the intervention, however, there was a significant difference in the mean scores of knowledge performance and all constructs of the HBM in two groups (p < 0.001). Rate of doing the Pap smear test in the experimental group increased from 18.7 to 78.7% in the intervention group.ConclusionThese findings support the effectiveness of cervical cancer prevention programs based on the HBM. Therefore, conducting similar programs in other regions is recommended.

Highlights

Cervical cancer is one of the major health problems and the third prevalent cancer in women all around the world
The educational intervention results based on Health Belief Model (HBM) show that education according to the model constructs has significantly increased women’s referrals to do the Pap smear test [19, 20]
The health education program based on the HBM improved the performance in the intervention group in terms of doing Pap smear test screening

Summary

Introduction

Cervical cancer is one of the major health problems and the third prevalent cancer in women all around the world. After breast and colorectal cancers, cervical cancer is the third prevalent cancer in women [1] Each year, this disease afflicts about 300 to 400 thousand new patients and there are nearly 200 thousand deaths worldwide. In Guilan province, rate of the incidence of this cancer is 0.48 per 100 thousand women [3] According to experts, these geographical differences are mostly due to the availability or unavailability of an effective screening and a therapeutic program [2] and these women’s inaccessibility to do the Pap smear test for early detection of this cancer [4]. The death and incidence rate of cervical cancer in most developed countries has declined due to routine Pap smear tests and recently because of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) screening [5]

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