Impact of Women’s Knowledge, Perception and Attitude towards Cervical Cancer Screening in South West Nigeria

Abstract Objectives: Although cancer of the cervix is a preventable disease and services associated to cervical cancer screening has proven to drastically reduce morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to investigate the impact of women’s knowledge, perception and attitude towards Cervical Cancer Screening in South West Nigeria. There is low uptake of Cervical cancer screening (CCS) in developing countries. In the same vein, preventive services are unorganised, sporadic and often expensive. Method: This study draws from a cross-sectional survey of 117 respondents from purposively selected rural and urban locations in southwest Nigeria to investigate the impact of awareness, attitudes, risk perception and socio-economic variables on CCS uptake. Results: The results of the descriptive statistics, Chi-square tests and regression analyses show that awareness and education level are significantly associated with CCS uptake. The respondent’s level of knowledge of signs and symptoms of cervical cancer is low. Conclusion: The findings underline the importance of awareness and enlightenment campaign as a key factor to drive CCS uptake. Furthermore, health care practitioners need to be actively engaged in the design and implementation of interventions. Finally, governments need to invest resources and funding to make CCS accessible and affordable in order to reduce both morbidity and mortality.