Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on Cervical Cancer Screening among Female Students of Mizan Tepi University, Ethiopia, 2016

Background
Women’s reproductive cancer is defined as the different types of cancers found in the women reproductive system caused due to various health conditions either acquired or congenital. Out of the many type of female cancers, cervical carcinoma may be prevented if proper medical measures are taken in time. These preventive measures include detection and regular screening of the condition during premalignant stages. Ample knowledge is important to spot the premalignant lesions and the understanding should be spread among common people to increase the awareness towards screening and preventing the disease conditions as soon as possible. The aim of the study was to Asses knowledge, attitude and practice towards cervical cancer screening among female students in Mizan-Tepi University, Ethiopia, 2016.

 Materials and methods:
The study was conducted among female students in Mizan-Tepi University From February to May, 2016 G.C. Descriptive cross sectional study design was used. Simple Random sampling method was used to select total sample size of 209. Data was collected through standard pre tested tools. Ethical clearance was obtained from collage of health science,and Data was analyzed by using SPSS and finally, presented by using bargraph, table and pie chart.

Result
Generally the knowledge and practice of cervical cancer screening were found to be very poor, but the attitude was positive to majority of a respondents. The results showed that 71(33.97%) had poor knowledge, 85(40.67%) had satisfactory knowledge and only 53(25.36%) had good knowledge. Overall 128(61.24%) of the respondents had positive attitude towards screening for cervical cancer. And 31(14.83%) of the study participants have ever been screened.

Conclusion and recommendation:
The study has shown that there is a lack of knowledge on cervical cancer and its screening. There is also poor utilization of screening services. We recommend Mizan-Tepi University has to increase awareness of students through mass media; College of health science has to prepare different campaign on cervical cancer screening program to increase the uptake of screening. We also recommend researchers to do further studies in this area by giving emphasis for factors.

Author(s): Kebadnew Mulatu, Ayalew Motma, Melkam Seid and Mulugeta Tadesse

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