Awareness and prevention of cervical cancer among female health professionals: a study of three health institutions in Winneba, Ghana
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Date
2015-04-09
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Abstract
Globally, every two minutes, at least one woman dies from cervical cancer. It is the second
most common cancer worldwide for women after breast cancer. Every year, around 494,000
develop cervical cancer globally and almost 49.5% (233,000) die from the disease annually
with about 80% (376,000) in developing countries. Little evidence exists on the extent of
cervical cancer awareness among health professionals in the Winneba Municipality.
This was a cross-sectional study with the aim of assessing the awareness of cervical cancer
and its prevention amongst female health professionals in the Winneba Municipality. A
sample of 204 respondents was selected by a multi stage cluster sampling technique.
The awareness of cervical cancer among the female health professionals was generally high
(99%), with their predominant source of information being school (37%) followed by the
internet (22%). Knowledge about the signs and symptoms of the disease were insufficient as
about half of the respondents did not know whether persistent lower back pain, bleeding from
vagina, persistent pelvic pain and unexplained weight loss were signs and symptoms of the
disease or not. Also, knowledge about the risk factors was inadequate as some of the
respondents were not sure whether smoking any form of cigarettes (65%), infection with
Chlamydia (51%), having a sexual partner who is not circumcised (29%), having many
children (65%) and not going for regular pap smear (50%) increased one‟s risk of developing
cervical cancer or not.
The study revealed inadequate knowledge about cervical cancer amongst female health
professionals in the Winneba Municipality. Interventions by stakeholders especially the
Winneba Municipal Health Directorate should be geared towards addressing the inadequacy
of cervical cancer knowledge amongst its health providers by organising training
programmes to address the setback.
Description
A dissertation submitted to the School of Graduate Studies,
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi
in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Public Health (MPH) in Health Education and
Promotion