Assessment of Knowledge of Major Reproductive Cancers, Early Detection Measures and Associated Factors Among Women of Gondar Town, North West Ethiopia, 2010
- Discuss the knowledge of women in Ethiopia about cervical and breast cancers.
- Describe practices of women in Ethiopia related to cervical and breast cancer prevention.
- Discuss common misconceptions of women in Ethiopia about cervical and breast cancers.
Design: A cross-sectional community based study was conducted from April 4-16, 2010 in Gondar town, North West Ethiopia.
Setting: The study was conducted in 4 randomly selected administrative areas of Gondar town. Gondar town is a the North Gondar Zonal town of the Amhara Regional State with a population of 300,000 according to the 2007 national census.
Patients/Participants: Participants are all household head women of the selected households who are age 15 or more years ald
Methods: A total of 633 women aged>15 years of age was interviewed using semi-structured questionnaire by 8 trained data collectors and 2 supervisors. SPSS Windows version 15.0 was employed for data analysis.
Results: Of all the respondents, 495 (78.7%) of them had heard about cervical cancer and only 195 (39.4%) of them were knowledgeable about the disease. Regarding knowledge of breast cancer, 560 (89%) had heard about it and 284 (50.7%) of them were knowledgeable. Few 119(18.9%) women had under gone pelvic examination and only 13(2%) of them reported screening as a reason for the pelvic examination. About a quarter 163(25.9%) examined their breasts at least once a month or a year.
Conclusion/Implications for nursing practice: Knowledge of women on both cervical and breast cancer was poor. Women’s practice of early detection measures for cervical and breast cancer was also very poor in this study. Strategies should be established to increase community awareness about reproductive cancers and avail screening services to the public.
Keywords: Cervical cancer, Breast cancer, Reproductive cancers, knowledge
