Attitude of Women of Childbearing Age Towards Cervical Cancer Screening in Nsukka, Enugu State A Facility-Based Cross-Sectional Survey
Main Article Content
Abstract
Worldwide, positive attitude towards health care initiative such as cervical cancer screening (CCS), remains a healthy approach to disease prevention. This study investigated attitude of women of childbearing age towards CCS in Nsukka Local Government Area (LGA), Enugu State. It was a cross-sectional survey conducted in a population of 11,357 registered women between August 2022 and November 2022. Using a simple random sampling technique, a total of 400 women were sampled and surveyed. A self-structured questionnaire which demonstrated .89 reliability co-efficient index was used for data collection. All statistical data were computed using International Business Machine - Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM-SPSS version 22). Mean score, standard deviation and one-way analysis of variance were used to analyse all the statistical data. The results were deemed significant at p ≤ 0.05. It was found that women of childbearing age had negative attitude towards CCS (=2.32; SD=0.40). Based on parity, nulliparous (=2.29; SD=0.45), multiparous (=2.32; SD=0.38), primiparous (=2.36; SD=0.37) and grand-multiparous (=2.36; SD=0.40) women had negative attitude towards CCS. No significant difference was found between parity status and attitude of the women towards CCS (F=0.487; p=0.692>0.05). In conclusion, women of childbearing age had negative attitude towards CCS. Parity status had no significant influence on the women’s attitude towards CCS, thus, the need for a collaboration between the Ministries of Health and Facility Management Board for organized programmes on women education and enlightenment on the significant benefits of CCS particularly in Nsukka LGA, Enugu State.