Faculty of Health Studies, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK.
Department of Public Health, Babcock University, Illishan Remo, Ogun, Nigeria.
BMC Womens Health. 2024 Sep 27;24(1):534. doi: 10.1186/s12905-024-03380-w.
Cervical Cancer is the commonest and one of the leading causes of death from cancer among women in developing countries. Screening has been shown to reduce morbidity and mortality from the illness, yet its uptake is low. This study investigated the pattern of utilization and preferences relating to the adoption of cervical screening among female postgraduate students at the University of Ibadan.
The study was a descriptive cross-sectional survey involving the use of a multi-stage sampling technique to recruit 372 women undergoing postgraduate studies (20-52 years with a mean age of 27.3 ± 5.4) at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. A pretested semi-structured, self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection and the coded data were analyzed using SPSS (version 20).
Only 4.0% of the respondents had been screened for Cervical Cancer at the time of study while 86.3% expressed their desire to be screened if given the opportunity. Most participants showed a favourable perception with 70.4% disagreeing that cervical cancer is a mild disease and 50.5% agreeing that the benefits of cervical cancer screening outweigh the stress of the screening procedure. Female doctors (73.2%) topped the list of health professionals' respondents who preferred to conduct the screening. A majority (70.7%) of the respondents preferred these screenings to be done during antenatal clinic visits. There is a significant association (p.value = 0.0007) between cervical cancer screening behaviors and sexual activity among women.
Poor utilization of Cervical cancer screening services is seen among Nigerian women undergoing postgraduate studies but a high willingness to utilize the services in the future with consideration to professionals delivering the service and specific locations where it can be obtained. The poor rate of cervical cancer screening from the study depicts the large extent to which cases of this cancer go without being detected till the advanced stages. Rolling out more screening strategies that will explore different service delivery points/preferences as highlighted in the study is needed for larger coverage.
在发展中国家，宫颈癌是女性中最常见的癌症之一，也是导致癌症死亡的主要原因之一。筛查已被证明可以降低该病的发病率和死亡率，但利用率仍然很低。本研究调查了伊巴丹大学女研究生在采用宫颈癌筛查方面的利用模式和偏好。
该研究是一项描述性的横断面调查，采用多阶段抽样技术招募了 372 名在尼日利亚伊巴丹大学攻读研究生课程的女性（20-52 岁，平均年龄 27.3±5.4 岁）。使用经过预测试的半结构式自我管理问卷进行数据收集，使用 SPSS（版本 20）对编码数据进行分析。
只有 4.0%的受访者在研究时接受过宫颈癌筛查，而 86.3%的人表示如果有机会愿意接受筛查。大多数参与者对宫颈癌有较好的认识，70.4%的人不同意宫颈癌是一种轻度疾病，50.5%的人认为宫颈癌筛查的益处大于筛查过程的压力。女性医生（73.2%）位居受访者首选的进行筛查的卫生专业人员榜首。大多数（70.7%）的受访者希望在产前诊所就诊时进行这些筛查。在女性中，宫颈癌筛查行为与性行为之间存在显著关联（p 值=0.0007）。
在接受研究生教育的尼日利亚女性中，宫颈癌筛查服务的利用率较低，但未来有很高的意愿利用这些服务，并考虑到提供服务的专业人员和可以获得服务的特定地点。本研究中宫颈癌筛查率较低，表明这种癌症在晚期之前有很大程度上没有被发现。需要推出更多的筛查策略，探索研究中强调的不同服务提供点/偏好，以实现更大的覆盖率。
