A Cross-sectional Study on Knowledge and Preventive Practice of Female Nurses’ towards Cervical Cancer in the Selected Government Hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2011.
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Date
2011-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Introduction: Cervical cancer is the first most common cancer in women in sub-Saharan Africa. In Ethiopia, the incidence of cervical cancer is high, 35.9 per 100,000 women. Low level of awareness, lack of effective screening programs to detect precancerous conditions, overshadowed by other health problems (such as acquired immune deficiency syndrome, tuberculosis and malaria) and insufficient attention to women‟s healt h are the possible factors for the observed higher incidence rate of cervical cancer in the country.
Objective: To explore the knowledge of cervical cancer, its preventive practice and associated factors among nurses in government hospitals.
Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on knowledge and preventive practice of female nurses towards cervical cancer, from October 2010 to May 2011 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The study was conducted in 4 randomly selected government hospitals. The study subject from each hospital was selected by proportional to size allocation. A total of 275 female nurses were selected to complete self administered questionnaire by six trained data collectors and two supervisors. Data was collected on March, 2011. The questionnaires were checked for completeness, cleaned manually and entered in to SPSS windows version 16.0 for analysis.
Results: The finding of the study has indicated that hundred fifty eight (60.8%) nurses had knowledge of cervical cancer but only 57 (21.9%) reported practicing prevention of cervical cancer. Among the socio demographic and profession related factors, marital status and training
has a strong and positive association on the knowledge of cervical cancer. In addition, other variables like education, family history, unit of work and ever cared patient with cervical cancer were shown to be significant and positive predictors of knowledge of cervical cancer. Variables like age, experience, being diagnosed with cervical cancer, ever cared patient with cervical
cancer and ever visited to health institution were revealed to be significant and positive predictors of preventive practice of cervical cancer.
Conclusion and recommendation: From this finding it is possible to conclude that; more than half of the respondents were Knowledgeable but preventive practice of Nurse‟s for cervical cancer was very poor. Consistent and frequent upgrading programs should be implemented; further research has to be done and the policy makers has to pay attention in designing strategies to strengthen nurses awareness on preventive measures.
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Keywords
Cervical cancer, knowledge, preventive practice