Basic Knowledge About Cervical Cancer and its Screening Tests Among Secondary School Teachers in Baghdad City

Abstract

Background: Cervical cancer is a well-defined and preventable major health problem. The main cause behind it is persistent human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. There are more than 200 HPV subtypes, but only a minority of them are oncogenic. The main mode of transmission of this infection is by sexual intercourse. It can be prevented by regular checking for premalignant states by taking cervical smears (Pap smears) and vaccinating young girls. In Iraq, there are no official policies for the preventive measures, and personal awareness is the only way to make women seek screening tests or vaccines. Objectives: To explore the general information of secondary school teachers in Baghdad city/Iraq who are college graduates about cervical cancer. Methods: A cross-sectional study was done, including 232 female secondary school teachers who were interviewed and asked to fill out a written questionnaire. Results: Only 5.6% of the respondents mentioned viral infection as the main cause of cervical cancer, and 14.2% answered a sexually transmitted disease. 14.7% of the teachers included recognize cervical smear as a screening test. Only one teacher (0.4%) knows there is a vaccine to prevent HPV infection. Teaching material mostly has no significant association with the teacher’s information. The main source of information was social media (76.7%). Conclusions: There is poor knowledge about cervical cancer among the educated class, secondary school teachers, and this can affect the rate of occurrence of this preventable disease in the future. Social media can be used to disseminate information regarding cervical cancer among Iraqi women.