Improving community health volunteers’ knowledge on cervical cancer using dialogue-based training in rural Kisumu County

Abstract

Abstract Background The global burden of cervical cancer continue to rise with the low- and middle-income countries bearing the greatest burden. East Africa recorded about 54560 cases and 36497 deaths attributed to cervical cancer in 2020 with 5236 cases and 3211 deaths being reported annually. This high burden can be attributed to low screening rates and late diagnosis, which lead to undesirable outcomes. Kenya still has low screening rates with only 16.4% of the eligible women screened against the WHO target of 70% by 2030. Kisumu has a lower screening rate of about 5.7% according to KHIS 2019 data. This low screening rate is due to lack of proper community health education. We evaluated the effectiveness of dialogue-based training in improving community health volunteers’ (CHV) knowledge on cervical cancer in Nyando. Methods The study adopted a pre-and-post, longitudinal study design. The CHVs knowledge was assessed before and after the training. We calculated the proportion net change in the number of CHVs with improved knowledge after the intervention. Statistical significance was assessed at p ≤ 0.05. Results The pre-test mean score was 30.1%, this improved to 53.4% at post-test following the dialogue-based training of the CHVs. The knowledge on the various aspects: risk factors ( p < 0.0001), signs and symptoms ( p < 0.0001) and screening ( p < 0.0001) significantly improved at the post-test following the dialogue-based training. The overall score also significantly improved (p < 0.0001) following the training among the CHVs. Occupation ( p < 0.0001) was found to be significantly associated with knowledge on cervical cancer. Conclusion The CHVs’ knowledge was inadequate but significantly improved following the dialogue-based training.