Knowledge, attitude, and practice with regard to cervical cancer screening and human papillomavirus vaccination among women attending primary health care centers of King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Pages : 100-107, DOI: https://doi.org/10.14741/ijmcr/v.10.2.1Download PDF
Introduction: This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice with regard to cervical cancer screening and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine among women attending primary health care (PHC) centers of King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at PHC centers of King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh. A total of 334 Saudi women were included using a convenience sampling method. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire.
Results: The study findings indicated that of the 334 participants, 243 (72.8%) had heard about cervical cancer, but the majority (72.4%) did not know that it is caused by HPV. Subsequently, 79.3% of women did not know that there is a vaccine against this virus. While 77.9% of participants thought that the vaccine is safe, 67.1% of women considered that they needed the vaccine, and only five women (1.5%) received the HPV vaccine.
A total of 167 (50.2%) women knew about Pap smear. Most of them agreed that Pap smear is important (82%) and that doing the test every 3 years is not difficult (72.5%). Furthermore, they did not think that the test is painful or harmful (60.8% and 76.7%), but only 14.4% of women had done it.
Conclusions: Inadequate levels of knowledge regarding the HPV vaccine and screening interval of cervical cancer were detected in our study population. Although the women had a good attitude towards the vaccine and Pap smear, the uptake of the vaccine and screening for cervical cancer were minimal.
Keywords: Human papillomavirus, cervical cancer, Pap smear, knowledge