Knowledge and Perception of Cervical Cancer and Its Prevention among Female Nurses in the Ga South Municipality, Ghana

Abstract

Background: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer worldwide for women after breast cancer. Every year, around 494,000 females develop cervical cancer globally and almost 49.5% (233,000) die from the disease annually with about 80% (376,000) of such deaths occurring in developing countries. Little evidence exists on the extent of cervical cancer awareness among nurses in the Ga South Municipality in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. This study was conducted with the aim of assessing the knowledge and perception of cervical cancer and its prevention among nurses in selected health facilities within the study area. Method: A sample of 200 respondents was selected with a multi-stage sampling technique. Univariate and bivariate analyses were respectively conducted to estimate frequencies and measure the level of associations between selected variables outputs. Results: The knowledge of cervical cancer among the nurses was generally high (85.5%). The predominant source of information is from public health workers (30.99%) followed by the School (24.56%). Knowledge about the signs and symptoms of the disease were insufficient as about half of the respondents did not know whether persistent lower back pain, bleeding from the vagina, persistent pelvic pain 68(34%) and unexplained weight loss 25(12%) were signs and symptoms of the disease or not. Also, knowledge about the risk factors was inadequate as some of the respondents were not sure whether smoking any form of cigarettes 56(28%), infection with Chlamydia 46(23%), having a sexual partner who is not circumcised 35(17%), having many children 75(35%) and not going for regular pap smear 55(27%) increased one’s risk of developing cervical cancer or not. Conclusion: The study revealed inadequate knowledge about cervical cancer among nurses in the Ga South Municipality. Interventions by stakeholders especially the Ga South Municipal Health Directorate should be geared towards addressing the inadequacy of cervical cancer knowledge among its health providers by organizing training programs to address the setback.