Factors associated with cervical cancer screening of women in Langsuan, Chumphon

Abstract

The paper investigates factors associated with cervical cancer scree ning of women in Langsuan district, using a cross-sectional
study of 382 women based on specifically designed questionnaires. Beside identifying factors associated with cervical cancer screening,
the paper also studies the rate of cervical cancer screening, knowledge about cervical cancer, and attitude about cervical cancer screening.
The descriptive statistical results show that, in term of the demographic and socio-economic characteristics, the majority (41.7%) are of the age range 41 – 50 years old with the mean age of 45.44. 81.1% of the participants are married and most are in the agriculture (56.8%). While on average, the individual earns about 5,000 Thai baht. In terms of general health, most of the women never smoke (95.2%) and have no underlying disease (70.5%).
Regarding gynecological characteristics, most have been pregnant before (90.4%). Whilst 52.6% have regular menstruation, 29.5 % have menopausal status. 94.8% of women have sexual activity, and 83.5% of women use contraception.
While only 37.2 % of women have a moderate level of knowledge regarding cervical cancer, 88.5% have good attitudes toward cervical cancer screening. With reference to cervical cancer screening behavior, the majority (51.3%) have undergone the screening but just for some years, 40.1% have a regular annual screening, and 8.6% have never had the screening.
Of special noted is that under the chi-square correlation analysis, the paper finds that factors that are significantly associated with cervical cancer screening behavior at 5% significance level are underlying disease, pregnancy history, menstrual status and knowledge.
With reference to the findings, in particular on the importance of knowledge, one of the policy recommendations for improving the rate of cervical cancer screening could be based on (i) improving women’s knowledge about the severity of cervical cancer and (ii) having community based campaign on continuous basis and with a larger coverage.