Knowledge Regarding Cervical Cancer and Screening amongst Nursing Staff in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in Marathawada Region of Maharashtra, India

Background: Cervical cancer remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality among women worldwide. It constitutes about 14% of all cancers incidence among women in India. Globally with an estimated 570,000 new cases in 2018 and 311,365 deaths, cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women. About 84% of all cervical cancer and 88% of all deaths caused by cervical cancer occurred in lower resource countries (HDI <0.80), of which 1.8% of women were diagnosed with, and 1.3% died from the disease before age 75 years, in the absence of competing causes of death . Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional institutional-based study was conducted among 180 nursing staff of a tertiary care teaching hospital after taking consent. A pre-tested and semi-structured questionnaire consists of sociodemographic information and knowledge about different aspects of cervical cancer and its screening was used to collect the data. The collected data were entered into a Microsoft Excel sheet and analyzed using appropriate statistical tests whenever necessary. Results: Out of 180 nursing staff, 91.66% knew about the availability of screening test and 69.44% had known about pap smear availability at our hospital. About 72.22% of nursing staff had knowledge regarding a vaccine for cervical cancer, and the percentages of the nursing staff knowing about who should be screened, frequency of screening and different diagnostic modalities for cervical cancer was 61.11%, 36.11%, and 72.22%, respectively. Conclusions: Knowledge about cervical cancer and screening was high among nursing staff. If properly aware of cancer and screening methods, they can play an important role to educate the women in society and, hence, can reduce the morbidity and mortality due to cervical cancer. Key words: Cervical cancer, knowledge, nursing staff, screening