Awareness about cervical cancer and its screening amongst patient’s attenders in a tertiary care hospital in Chennai

Abstract

In recent years cervical cancer has been witnessed as the second most prevalent cancer amongst females throughout the world. Sadly, regardless of the proof of methods for prevention, the majority of the females endure unscreened. The hurdles to screening include ignorance towards risk factors, manifestations, stigma, and fallacy about gynecological ailments. This research was conducted with the objective to describe the extent of awareness about cervical carcinoma and its screening among patient’s attenders who are women and are in the reproductive age group in a tertiary hospital. A cross-sectional study was conducted among patient's attenders age 15-45 years at a tertiary health care center, i.e., Saveetha Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) with a sample size of 158 and purposive sampling technique was used. Data was gathered using a semi-structured questionnaire. Data were entered in Microsoft Excel and analyzed using relevant statistical tests. Out of 158 study participants at SMCH,85 (53.7%) of them have heard about cervical cancer, 88 (55.6%) are apprised of screening of cervical carcinoma and 40 (25.3%) of them have been screened for cervical carcinoma using Pap smear. Study shows that more than half of the women have a satisfactory extent of awareness regarding cervical carcinoma. However, uptake of screening services is low. These results indicate that we need to increase awareness about cervical cancer and its screening.