Cervical cancer screening practice and associated factors among women employees in Wolaita Zone hospitals, Southern Ethiopia, 2017: cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: cervical cancer is a global public health problem affecting women worldwide. There is very low participation rate in screening practice for cervical cancer in low-resource countries like Ethiopia. So the aims of this study is to assess cervical cancer screening practice and associated factors among women employees in Wolaita Zone hospitals, Southern Ethiopia. Methods: facility based cross-sectional study design was conducted from March 1-April 30, 2017. Simple random sampling technique was employed to select 401 study participants. Pre-tested self-administered questionnaire was used. Logistic regression was performed to assess association between dependent and independent variables with 95% confidence interval (CI) and p-value less than 0.05 was set to declare association. Results: about 120 (30.5%) participants were screened for cervical cancer. Age, source of information from health professions, being adherence supporter, sex with more than one partner, sexual transmitted infection, increase in attitude and knowledge score were significant predictors of cervical cancer screening practice. Conclusion: magnitude of cervical cancer screening practice among age eligible women is still low. Age, being adherence supporter, source of information from health care professionals, history of multiple sexual partners, sexually transmitted infection, knowledge and attitude were important predictors of cervical cancer screening practice. Hospitals in collaboration with town administration should put priority on cervical cancer prevention by establishing cervical cancer screening campaign.