Osei Evans Appiah, Ani-Amponsah Mary
School of Nursing and Midwifery, Department of Midwifery, Valley View University, Ghana. P.O. Box DT 595, Oyibi, Ghana.
Faculty - University of Ghana, Ghana, West Africa.
Public Health Pract (Oxf). 2022 May 16;3:100274. doi: 10.1016/j.puhip.2022.100274. eCollection 2022 Jun.
Cervical is one of the topmost causes of fatalities worldwide with mortality and incidence rates highest in sub-Saharan Africa including Ghana. The knowledge about cervical cancer threat and severity has not been extensively studied in most developing and developed countries of which Ghana is not exempted. The study, therefore, aimed to explore the views of women about cervical cancer threat, severity, and the benefits of cervical cancer screening in rural communities in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana.
Qualitative exploratory descriptive design was used to purposively sample 17 participants.
The data collection tool was pretested among 4 women from women to ensure its trustworthiness. Participants were interviewed face to face using a semi-structured interview guide. The interviews were recorded with audio recorders, transcribed verbatim and content analyzed. Ethics approval was obtained from Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research Institutional Review Board (NMIMR-IRB).
Findings of this study discovered that participants perceived Cervical cancer (CC) as serious on the basis that it is causing death of most women and lead to depression, isolation and thoughts of suicide, and poor sexual performance. Almost all the women in this study were aware that cervical cancer screening (CCS) is beneficial in the early detection of cervical cancer and protecting women against cervical cancer in order to reduce the mortalities associated with cervical cancer. In conclusion, there is high perceived severity to CC and benefits of CCS and hence other studies could be done to assess the uptake of the screening and willingness to participate in the screening among these participants. It is expected that this high perceived severity and benefits will translate into their practices of CCS and hence other researchers could explore this phenomenon.
宫颈癌是全球主要致死原因之一，在包括加纳在内的撒哈拉以南非洲地区，其死亡率和发病率最高。在大多数发展中国家和发达国家，关于宫颈癌威胁和严重性的认知尚未得到广泛研究，加纳也不例外。因此，本研究旨在探讨加纳大阿克拉地区农村社区女性对宫颈癌威胁、严重性以及宫颈癌筛查益处的看法。
采用定性探索性描述性设计，有目的地抽取了17名参与者。
数据收集工具在4名女性中进行了预测试，以确保其可靠性。使用半结构化访谈指南对参与者进行面对面访谈。访谈用录音机记录，逐字转录并进行内容分析。获得了诺库奇纪念医学研究所机构审查委员会（NMIMR-IRB）的伦理批准。
本研究结果发现，参与者认为宫颈癌很严重，因为它导致大多数女性死亡，并导致抑郁、孤立和自杀念头，以及性功能障碍。本研究中几乎所有女性都意识到宫颈癌筛查有利于早期发现宫颈癌并保护女性预防宫颈癌，以降低与宫颈癌相关的死亡率。总之，参与者对宫颈癌的严重性和宫颈癌筛查的益处认知度较高，因此可以开展其他研究来评估这些参与者对筛查的接受程度和参与筛查的意愿。预计这种较高的严重性认知和益处认知将转化为她们的宫颈癌筛查行为，因此其他研究人员可以探索这一现象。
