Abstract

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice about Pap Smear among Married Women Attending Primary Health Care Centers in Duhok City

Background: Cervical Cancer (CC) is the only preventable cancer among all the female genital tract cancers when is detected in its pre-malignant stage, but it is a fatal disease once it gets its invasive stages. Early detection of it is performed by a medical screening procedure Pap smear (PS), which is an inexpensive and effectual procedure to look for any cervical cytological changes (pre-malignant or malignant). Objectives: The present study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) about PS, to identify the barriers that are an impediment to having it, to find out the association between KAP of PS, and find out the association between married women socio-demographic characteristics and their KAP of PS. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 400 women at the time of data collection from 7th April 2015 to 30th May 2015. A structured questionnaire was administrated to gather the data related to the knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding PS, in addition to the barriers that impeded women to practice it. Result: Among all women who were interviewed, about 35.9% heard of the Pap smear and 57.1% heard about cervical cancer. Only 7.3% of women had good knowledge about Pap smear, 33% of them had a positive attitude, and 9.5% of them practiced it. The main reason for having the PS was the health provider’s advice. Conclusion: The majority of women had low knowledge of PS, and a negative attitude and was not practicing it. Effective media and providing health education are required to improve the level of awareness towards it. A healthcare professional should be contributing to knowledge transfer whenever the opportunity arises.

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