A study to determine women's knowledge and practices towards cervical cancer at st francis hospital in katete.

Abstract

The reason of conducting this study was to find out why there was a progressive increase in cervical cancer incidences. The focus of this study was to determine the women's knowledge and practices towards cervical cancer at St. Francis Hospital in Katete. This hospital is located in Katete district in Eastern Province along Great East Road. Some of the factors that influence the topic under study include socio-cultural factors such as increased parity, socio-economical such as low educational levels and disease related factors like HIV/AIDS. Literature review on cervical cancer was reviewed globally, regionally and nationally. The study was conducted between August and September, 2007 on 50 women aged 15 to 60 years who had more than one (1) child. A non experimental explorative cross sectional study design was used and data was collected using a structured interview schedule. The results of the study revealed that many participants were not knowledgeable about cervical cancer and the majority may be at risk of suffering from cervical cancer at a later age due to early pregnancies and having many children and practicing insertion of vaginal herbs. The study also revealed that there is no pap smear service accessible to clients in Eastern Province. All the hypotheses which were stated in the study were accepted.