Knowledge, attitude and practice of cervical cancer screening among women attending gynecology clinics in a tertiary level medical care center in southeastern Nigeria.

Objective: To describe the knowledge, attitudes and practices of gynecology clinic attendees in a tertiary level healthcare center in Nigeria.

Study Design: This is a descriptive, cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study conducted at Nnamdi Azikwe University Teaching Hospital in Nigeria in December 2007.

Results: A total of 200 questionnaires were distributed, and 198 were properly completed. The 198 completely and properly filled questionnaires formed the basis of the analysis. Twenty-five (12.6%) of the women were aware of the cervical cancer screening test, while 173 (87.4%) had never heard of the test before. Only 8% of the respondents had knowledge of the prevention of cervical cancer, but none of them were aware of the introduction of the human papillomavirus vaccine. Twenty-one (84.0%) of those women who were aware of the cervical cancer screening test got their information from healthcare providers, 3 (12.0%) from television and 2 (8.0%) from radio. Of the 25 respondents who were aware of the cervical cancer screening test, 15 (60.0%) had received at least a Pap smear test. All of the screening was done as an opportunistic screening exercise. A total of 119 (85.0%) of the women were not able to be screened because they were not aware of the cervical cancer smear screening, while 4 (3.2%) felt that it was unnecessary. There is a significant association between the educational status and the knowledge of the cervical smear Pap test (chi2 = 10.14, p value = 0.001). Eighty (57.1%) of the women agreed that they would like to undertake cervical cancer screening, while 60 (42.9%) would decline the cervical cancer screening test.

Conclusion: The knowledge about cervical cancer in this study was very low. This poor knowledge may limit the utilization of cervical cancer prevention programs. This study underscores the need to establish an intensive and sustainable awareness campaign on the prevention of cancer of the cervix.