Impact of Cervical Cancer Preventive Education on the Practice of Cervical Cancer Routine Checks-Up

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of cervical cancer preventive education on cancer routine check-up by women in Akwa Ibom State. A cross sectional survey design was used for this study. The population consisted of women between 16 and 45 years of age from three hospitals in Akwa Ibom State. A total of 314 women participated in the study. A researcher developed questionnaire Impact of Cervical Cancer Preventive Education on Practice of Cervical Cancer routine Check up questionnaire (ICC PEPCCRCU) was used for data collection. Chi-square and simple regression were used to test the null hypotheses at .05 level of significant. The results showed no significant impact of level of education on knowledge of cervical cancer prevention, no significant impact of knowledge of practice of cervical cancer prevention. There was significant relationship between knowledge and practice of cervical cancer prevention. It was recommended that policy makers should employ professional health educators on cancer prevention to educate the women on cancer preventive measures. I. Introduction Cervical cancer is one of the leading causes of death in women in the developed countries. Screening programme help to identify pre-cancerous lesion at a stage when they can easily be treated. Lack of screening programme and routine checks-ups in poor countries lead to delay in identifying the cancer until it becomes too late and deadly. Inadequate cervical cancer preventive education leads to ignorance of the availability of screening services and patronage. Many women are unaware of the need for cervical cancer screening and routine check ups. As such they do not patronize the few services available. Hassan