Knowledge and Awareness about Cervical Cancer Screening and HPV Vaccine among Females Aged 15-49 Years in Rukum District of Nepal

Introduction: Cervical cancer is the first most common cancer and the leading cause of mortality among women in Nepal. The annual age standardized incidence rate of cervical cancer is 19.0 and the mortality rate is 12.0 per 100,000 women. Awareness and knowledge about cervical cancer among females is essential in the prevention of cancer. The objective of this study was to assess the level of knowledge and awareness about cervical cancer and to identify the screening practices among the women in Rukum district of Nepal. Methodology: This cross sectional study was conducted in Jan to Feb 2016 in Rukum, Nepal. Multistage sampling technique was used and 600 Female aged between 15-49 years were recruited. A semi structured interview questionnaire was used to collect the information. The inferential statistics, chi square test was used to summarize the data. For bivariate analysis, odds ratio and its 95% CI were obtained and binary logistic regression technique was used as a multivariate analysis. Results: Among the 600 women, 77.5% had heard about cervical cancer. Of these only 16% (72) were aware about cervical cancer screening and 7% were aware about the Pap smear test. Among these only 13.6 % (8/72) had ever undergone for cervical cancer screening. Only 5% had heard about HPV, among of them 30% knew that it can cause cervical cancer. Only 47% had adequate knowledge about cervical cancer, HPV and its screening. Education, occupation and monthly household income of the participants were significantly associated with knowledge of cervical cancer. Conclusion: This study identified that, there have been a low level of knowledge about cervical cancer among women. It indicates that there is a need to implement some strategies to enhance the knowledge of cervical cancer for these women.