Knowledge and Prevalence of Cervical Cancer Screening Among Women Receiving Prenatal Care in Accra, Ghana: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Abstract

Objectives: The primary purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge and prevalence of cervical cancer screening (CCS) among women attending prenatal care clinics in the Okaikwei North Municipal Assembly (ONMA) in the Greater Accra region, Ghana. The study also aimed to examine whether there were differences in CCS knowledge between the women attending the prenatal care clinics.

Design: This study utilized a cross-sectional, quantitative approach and a two-stage cluster sampling method.

Setting: The study involved 393 women receiving prenatal care at three health facilities in the district, namely NK Salem Medical Centre Hospital (NMCH), Achimota Hospital (AH), and Lapaz Community Hospital (LCH).

Primary outcome: Level of Knowledge and Prevalence of CCS.

Results: The sampled participants from the three hospitals were Achimota (36.6%), Lapaz Community (32.1%), and NK Salem (31.3%). The mean age (SD) was 29.7 (±3.8) years. The age group 21 to 30 years formed the majority (57.8%). The prevalence of CCS among women receiving prenatal care was 7.4%; although most of them had heard about CCS, a proportion (46.5%) of them did not know CCS was, and only 33.9% knew Pap Smear as the test for detecting cervical cancer. A very small proportion (19.8%) of the women receiving prenatal care had CCS knowledge. There was a statistically significant difference in mean knowledge by 1.47 between women receiving prenatal care at AH and LCH, as well as by 1.82 between NMCH and LCH.

Conclusion: There was a very low knowledge and prevalence of CCS in the district. Knowledge of CCS differed significantly between the health facilities in the district.