The Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Regarding Pap Smear, Cervical Cancer, and Human Papillomavirus among Women Attending a Mother and Child Health Clinic in Kuantan, Malaysia

Tg. Faten Nurjihan; Tg. Abdul Rahman; Nor Azlina A. Rahman; Mohd Affendi Mohd Shafri; Mainul Haque

doi:10.4103/ijmpo.ijmpo_199_17

Indian Journal of Medical and Paediatric Oncology, Table of Contents

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Indian J Med Paediatr Oncol 2019; 40(02): 193-200
DOI: 10.4103/ijmpo.ijmpo_199_17

Original Article

The Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Regarding Pap Smear, Cervical Cancer, and Human Papillomavirus among Women Attending a Mother and Child Health Clinic in Kuantan, Malaysia

Authors

Tg. Faten Nurjihan

Kulliyyah of Science, International Islamic University Malaysia
Tg. Abdul Rahman

Kulliyyah of Science, International Islamic University Malaysia
Nor Azlina A. Rahman

Departments of Physical Rehabilitation Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuantan, Pahang
Mohd Affendi Mohd Shafri

Departments of Biomedical Science, Kulliyyah of Allied Health Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuantan, Pahang
Mainul Haque

Faculty of Medicine and Defence Health, Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (National Defence University of Malaysia), Kem Perdana Sungai Besi, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract

Background: Cervical cancer (CC) is a foremost reason of global cancer death in women, and a good portion remains with the developing countries. This study was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding Pap smear, CC, and Human Papillomavirus (HPV) among the women attending a Mother and Child Health Clinic in Kuantan, Malaysia. Materials and Methods: A total of 120 respondents involved in this cross-sectional study. The convenience sampling was to select the respondents. The data were collected from in 2013. Results: The mean age 32.19 years. Up to 54.2% of respondents never had Pap smear in the past 5 years, while over 67.5% of respondents never had HPV vaccination. There was a significant correlation between knowledge with attitude (P < 0.001) and attitude with practice (P < 0.001) regarding Pap smear, CC, and HPV. However, knowledge and practice regarding Pap smear, CC, and HPV was not significantly correlated (P = 0.525). There was no significant correlation between mean age and knowledge (P = 0.455) while there was a significant correlation between mean age with attitude (P = 0.011) and practice (P < 0.001) regarding Pap smear, CC, and HPV. It was also shown that there were differences between races in term of knowledge and attitude (P < 0.05). However, there was no significant difference in term of practice regarding Pap smear, CC, and HPV (P > 0.05) between races. Conclusions: Important barriers to Pap smear screening among women are highlighted through this study. The health institution involved needs to come up with better strategies to deal with these barriers to improve the awareness of women regarding Pap smear, CC, and HPV.

Keywords

Attitude - cervical cancer - human papillomavirus - knowledge - Malaysia - Pap smear - practice

Full Text

References

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