Ovarian Cancer Symptom Awareness and Its Response among Female Health Workers

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the level of awareness of ovarian cancer symptoms and help-seeking responses of female health workers. Methods: Four hundred and fifty seven female health workers were randomly selected and made to complete a structured proforma adapted from the Ovarian Cancer Awareness Measure (Ovarian CAM), which is a site-specific version of the generic Cancer Awareness Measure. Questions were asked on level of awareness of ovarian cancer early symptoms, anticipated time and the barriers to help-seeking responses. Results: Out of 457 clients, 211 (46.2%) were able to recall at least one warning symptom of ovarian cancer while 20 (4.4%) were able to recall more than 3 warning symptoms. On the other end, when presented with a list of warning symptoms of ovarian cancer, identification ranged from 33.7-72.0% for the symptoms. As high as 28.0% could not identify any of the listed warning symptoms though some of them are also well known symptoms of late stage of ovarian cancer as well. A range of 11.7-27.3% of those who have ever seen a cancer patient before will seek for immediate medical help for various ovarian cancer symptoms. Also, having experienced a form of cancer before showed no relationship with the identification of all the warning signs of ovarian cancer outlined (P value ranged from .15 to .93). Conclusion: The level of awareness of ovarian cancer warning symptoms is very low among the female health workers, and there is a poor medical help seeking habit even among those that could identify those symptoms. Efforts at improving these factors are therefore recommended.