Knowledge, Attitude and Acceptance of Rural Women Regarding Pap Smear Test and Self-Sampling for Hpv- A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer globally. Cervical cancer makes up to 18% of all cancers in India. Two screening tests for cervical cancer can help find changes that could become pre-cancer or cervical cancer—The PAPANICOLAU TEST (Pap Test or Pap smear) and the HPV. Awareness among women regarding Pap smear and HPV testing is low. Attitude and acceptance towards cervical screening methods are low, despite various efforts from the Public Health authorities.

Objectives: The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and acceptance of rural women regarding Pap smear test and HPV self-sampling

Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in 3 blocks of Mathur village, TN, India among rural women. A total of 323 women aged 18-60 years were selected using a systematic sampling technique.271 women who had previously heard about Pap smear tests were asked to fill the knowledge, attitude and acceptance questionnaire regarding Pap smear and HPV self-sampling after brief explanation.

Results: Majority of the participants were married (68%), belonged to 25-44 age group (54.8%) and had 1-2 children (61.8%). Most of them (84%) had heard about Pap smear before but 90% of them had not taken Pap smear test even once. Almost all of them (92.3%) had never heard about HPV self-sampling.  Among those who had heard about Pap smear, 42.4% of them had inadequate knowledge and 63% of them had favourable attitude and acceptance towards Pap smear test and HPV self-sampling. 72.69% of them were willing to take Pap smear test and only 2.95% of them were ready to consider HPV self–sampling. There was a significant relationship between knowledge level of the women with a history of Pap smear (p<0.001). History of Pap smear among women with good knowledge was 79.4%, with medium knowledge was 54.5% and with weak knowledge was 34.6%. 

Conclusions: Despite low level of knowledge regarding Pap smear and HPV self-sampling, attitude and acceptance was generally positive. There is more scope for improving the awareness of rural women regarding cervical cancer screening methods. Health care professionals play an important part in creating awareness among rural women and they should be encouraged to do so.