Impact of education on knowledge and perception of cervical cancer and its prevention among adolescent’s girls in school based interventional study

Santhi Muttipoll Dharmarajlu; Reem Mohammed Jafari; Hala Ahmed; Refanh Saeed; Abrar Sadi; Aisha Hadaddy

Impact of education on knowledge and perception of cervical cancer and its prevention among adolescent’s girls in school based interventional study

Authors
Santhi Muttipoll Dharmarajlu, Reem Mohammed Jafari, Hala Ahmed, Refanh Saeed, Abrar Sadi, Aisha Hadaddy

Abstract
Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer among women in the world. According to the GLOBOCAN report in 2012, Saudi women have an estimated cervical cancer incidence of 2.2 per 100,000 age-standardized rates (ASR). Of these 241 women, 84 (34.8%) have died due to cervical cancer. Many factors have been identified as contributors to cervical cancer among women living in different regions of the world, including the prevalence of HPV, lack of screening programs, limited access to care, social environment that fosters certain behavioural factors, and values and beliefs concerning cervical cancer. This study was intended to identify the knowledge and perception of cervical cancer and its perception among adolescents in selected school, Farasan. Through quantitative survey approach and pre-experimental design, the 30 students from 16-18 years were selected by convenient sampling method. Initially, personal information was obtained from adolescents and then 40 questions were formulated to assess the knowledge on cervical cancer. The perception was assessed through 3-point Rating scale (Agree-3, Disagree-2 and not sure-1). The results of the study show the overall pre-test mean score was 6.43±3.1 where as in post-test it was 36.49±2.63 with the mean difference of 30.06. The calculated ‘t’ value was 3.95 at 0.05 level. Hence it shows that significant improvement of students’ knowledge on cervical cancer after implementation of video teaching programme. For perception the pre-test was 12.5±1.84, whereas in post-test it was 29.1±0.876, with the mean difference of 16.6. It shows that students had favourable attitude toward cervical cancer. The calculated ‘t’ value was 3.068 at 0.05 level of significance. There was no association between knowledge and perception scores with selected demographic variables. There was a positive correlation between pre and post-test scores of knowledge and perception about cervical cancer. Planned communication aiming eligible women, complete availability of screening services in public health facilities may increase the acceptance of screening. There is a need for more educational programs to channel identified knowledge slits and scale up of regular practice of cervical cancer screening in women.

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