Knowledge, Attitude and Practice towards Cervical Cancer Screening among Arsi University Female Students

Abstract

Background: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women with 529,000 new cases each year worldwide. It is also a leading cause of mortality worldwide with 270 000 women every year. According to the 2009 World Health Organization report, the age-adjusted incidence rate of cervical cancer in Ethiopia was 35.9 per 100,000 patients with 7619 annual number of new cases and 60-81 deaths every year. Despite this fact very few women receive screening services in Ethiopia. Objective: The study aimed to assess knowledge, attitude and practice towards screening for cervical cancer among female students at Arsi University. Methodology: An institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted from July-August 2016 among 667 Arsi University female students. Structured self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive analysis, Chi-square test, Bivariate and multivariate analysis were used regression were used. Results: About 404(60.6%) of the participants heard about cervical cancer, 478(71.7%) had positive attitude towards cervical cancer screening and only 15(2.2%) participants were screened for cervical cancer. Lack of information about cervical cancer was the most reported reason for not attending cervical cancer screening. Conclusion: The study showed that there is a lack of knowledge on cervical cancer and screening for premalignant cervical lesion. The reason for poor practice was lack of knowledge and information.