Perception and uptake of cervical screening exercises among women in Oluyole local government area, Oyo state

Abstract

Cervical cancer is the uncontrolled and unregulated cell growths in the cervical wall mostly cause by a virus called Human Papilloma virus, it is the second common cancer after breast cancer among women and one of the principal causes of cancer death among female gender population. However, this condition is preventable by early identification of premalignant lesions and appropriate medical management. The descriptive study was conducted to assess the perception and attitude of women towards uptake of cervical cancer screening in Oluyole Local Government using a self-administered questionnaire to elicit responses from 120 women attending antenatal clinic in Odo-Ona Elewe and Adaramagbo Primary health care centre. Responses were gathered and coded for analysis using Statistical Package for social sciences (SPSS, Version 23) at a significant level of 0.05. The study revealed that the majority of the respondents are between the age of 36 to 40 and they have adequate perception of cervical cancer. The women are of the strong opinion that early identification and presentation of cervical cancer lead to cure as this shows that they are knowledgeable about cancer. Most of the women believe that cervical cancer is not purely spiritual attack. There is well defined positive correlation between the knowledge of respondents and uptakes of cervical screening exercise with the correlation value of + 0.624 which indicates that perception of the respondents affect their uptake of cervical screening exercise. There is a strong positive relationship between the attitude of the respondents and uptake of cervical screening exercise with the correlation value of + 0.900 which indicates that the respondents attitude affect their uptake of cervical screening exercise. The constraints faced and uptake of cervical screening exercise has a correlation value of +0.599 which indicates that the constraints faced by the respondents affect their uptake of cervical screening exercise. In Conclusion it can be seen that perception influences uptake of cervical screening exercise therefore it is advisable to organise more educational programmes to enlighten the society better.