Bekele Henok Tesfaye, Nuri Aliya, Abera Legesse
Departments of Public health, College of Medicine and Health Science in Dire Dawa University, Dire Dawa, Eastern Ethiopia.
Cancer Inform. 2022 Apr 8;21:11769351221084808. doi: 10.1177/11769351221084808. eCollection 2022.
Cervical cancer is preventable and, in most cases, curable if identified at an early stage. Cervical cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality Ethiopia with screening accounting for only 0.8%. Furthermore, female students and young adults in colleges and universities' have a high prevalence of genital HPV infection because of their risky sexual behavior, lack of knowledge on screening and very few students receive screening services. This study aimed to assess the Knowledge, attitudes, and practice toward cervical cancer screening and its associated factors among female college students in Dire Dawa City, Ethiopia.
An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted using a multistage sampling technique from November to December 2020, among 730 female college students in Dire Dawa. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression were used to describe each variable and identify associations between the dependent and independent variables respectively. Adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval and P-value <.05 used to determine the association.
The results showed, only 64 (9.3%) participants were knowledgeable, 413 (60.1%) had positive attitudes and 17 (2.5%) were screened in their lifetime. Age group, years of study, and history of cervical cancer practice were significantly associated with knowledge of cervical cancer screening. The year of study was based on cervical cancer smears and the number of screenings was significantly associated with attitude.
This study showed that students' knowledge of cervical cancer screening is low. Overall attitudes toward cervical cancer screening among female students were good, but only a small proportion of students had undergone cervical cancer screening. The most common reasons for the low screening practice were lack of information and undecided. There is a need to promote different campaigns for cervical cancer screening programs, in order to increase awareness.
宫颈癌是可预防的，而且在大多数情况下，如果早期发现是可治愈的。宫颈癌是埃塞俄比亚癌症相关死亡的第二大主要原因，而筛查率仅为0.8%。此外，高校中的女学生和年轻成年人由于其危险的性行为、缺乏筛查知识且很少有学生接受筛查服务，导致生殖器HPV感染率很高。本研究旨在评估埃塞俄比亚德雷达瓦市女大学生对宫颈癌筛查的知识、态度和实践及其相关因素。
2020年11月至12月，采用多阶段抽样技术，对德雷达瓦的730名女大学生进行了一项基于机构的横断面研究。描述性统计和二元逻辑回归分别用于描述每个变量并确定自变量与因变量之间的关联。使用95%置信区间和P值<0.05的调整优势比来确定关联。
结果显示，只有64名（9.3%）参与者有相关知识，413名（60.1%）态度积极，17名（2.5%）在其一生中接受过筛查。年龄组、学习年限和宫颈癌实践史与宫颈癌筛查知识显著相关。学习年限与宫颈癌涂片有关，筛查次数与态度显著相关。
本研究表明，学生对宫颈癌筛查的知识水平较低。女学生对宫颈癌筛查的总体态度良好，但只有一小部分学生接受过宫颈癌筛查。筛查率低的最常见原因是缺乏信息和犹豫不决。有必要开展不同的宫颈癌筛查宣传活动，以提高认识。
