Knowledge and Attitude on Cervical Cancer Screening among Female Hospital Attendants at Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Puducherry

Abstract

Cervical cancer is the number one cause of death middle aged women and 20% of all cancer related deaths in women occur in India. The cancer can develop from exposure to the human papilloma virus (HPV) which is a sexually transmitted infection. India has a population of 366.58 million women aged 15 years and older who are at risk of developing cervical cancer. The present study was aims to assess the “Knowledge and attitude on cervical cancer screening among female hospital attendants at pondicherry institute of medical sciences, puducherry” 80samples were selected by convenience sampling technique. Structured questionnaire was used to assess the level of knowledge and attitude regarding cervical cancer screening among participants after the content validity. The study findings reveled that majority of the participants had inadequate knowledge 42(53%), 5 (46%) had moderate knowledge and only one, 1(1%) had adequate knowledge about the cervical cancer screening. Majority of the participants had moderately favourable attitude 47(59%), 28(35%) had Favourable attitude and only 5(6%) had Unfavourable attitude regarding cervical cancer screening. It shows that Hospital Attendants needs to be empowered with knowledge on cervical cancer screening.