Cervical Cancer Screening Practices among Women Attending Marie Stopes Clinics at Kokomlemle And Dansoman, Greater Accra Region

Abstract

Introduction- Cervical cancer is the second most common malignancy in women overall. (Sung et al, 2021). About 90% of the anticipated 487,000 cervical cancer fatalities in 2021 took place in low- and middle-income nations. Cervical cancer screening rates are still quite low in impoverished nations like Ghana, even though early detection and screening improve outcomes and prognoses. The goal of the study was to evaluate how often women of reproductive age who attend Marie Stopes Clinic, Dansoman and Kokomlemle branches screen for cervical cancer. Methods: It was done using descriptive quantitative approach. 335 women of reproductive age who live in Dansoman and Kokomlemle and attended the Kokomlemle and Dansoman locations of the Marie Stopes International Clinic for sexual and reproductive health services participated in a cross-sectional survey. The information was gathered using a suitably formatted questionnaire with questions that are both closed-ended and open-ended. STATA version 17 was used to clean, export the data to an excel sheet, and do the analysis. Findings: Only a small percentage of women who were aware of cervical cancer had appropriate knowledge, and among those who knew about the disease's screening procedures (30.1%)., there were insufficient cervical cancer screening practices (33.7%) Women mostly learned about cervical cancer through the media (i.e., radio, television, and internet). Even though most women (50.6%) did not want to get examined, the poll also showed that only a small percentage of women (30.1%) had their cervical cancer screened. The main cause of this was a lack of awareness and information about cervical cancer screening. The results show that, with P values of 0.001, 0.000, and 0.011 at a 95% Confidence Interval, respectively, educational level, kind of employment and the availability of information and services, are statistically significant in positively influencing awareness and knowledge level. Conclusion: Cervical cancer screening programs are not widely used among women of reproductive age who attend the Marie Stopes International Clinic facilities in Dansoman and Kokomlemle. Consequently, it is essential to implement strategic steps to motivate women to get screened for cervical cancer.