Sexual attitudes and their relation to cervical intraepithelial neoplasia in Maiduguri, Nigeria

Abstract

Five hundred randomly selected sexually active women attending antenatal, postnatal, family planning and gynaecological clinics in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, had questionnaires administered on their sexual attitudes/ behaviour and their 'pap'smears taken for cytological assessment. The aim was to identify any significant association between sexual attitudes/behaviour and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) for the purpose of targeting the population most at risk. Ninety-one women had varying degrees of CIN, a prevalence rate of 18.2%. However, multiple sexual partners was the only factor incriminated to significantly increase the risk of occurrence of CIN. Targeting women with multiple sexual partners may help in directing limited screening resources to those more likely to be positive.