Women's Knowledge and Attitude About Cervical Cancer in Thi-Qar Governorate

Abstract

Background: One of the most prevalent types of cancer in women worldwide, cervical cancer is mostly caused by ongoing infection with a high-risk oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV), with more than 90% of new cases happening in developing and resource-limited nations. Objective: To determine women's knowledge, attitudes, and screening practices for cervical cancer. Materials and methods: The information from 300 women was gathered using a descriptive cross-sectional study approach. Each woman was chosen from among local researchers. Face-to-face interviews and structured instruments were used to collect the data, and each interview lasted about 15-20 minutes. SPSS version 25 was used to analyze the data and interpret it using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: The average age of the 300 women was 30.85 9.819 and all the samples were of reproductive age. (54%) were housewives, (54%) were in primary school, and (62.7%) were married. Due to a lack of information, attitude, and practice, more than half of the sample did not participate in the cervical cancer prevention and screening awareness campaign. Only working women's degree of knowledge regarding cervical cancer screening was statistically significant (p = 0.00). Conclusion: Less than half of the survey participants knew little about cervical cancer. Though few of the study's participants received cervical cancer screenings, the majority of them had a negative attitude. Age, education, place of residence, and marital status had no correlation with knowledge, attitude, or use of the cervical cancer screening method; only occupation does.