Rita Giri
Canada
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Prim Health Care
Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women living in less developed regions. In Nepal, Little is known about the knowledge regarding cervical cancer in a female young adult. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to find out the knowledge regarding cervical cancer among undergraduate female students. Non-probability purposive sampling with the self-administered structured questionnaire was used to collect the information among 150 female students of Little Angels College of Management, Lalitpur, Nepal. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Among the respondents, the mean age was 19.3 ± 1.1 years. Almost all (95%) of the respondents had inadequate knowledge regarding cervical cancer. The respondents who knew the meaning of cervical cancer were 56%. Similarly, 35% of the respondents on an average had knowledge about the risk factor. Almost two-thirds of students knew that cervical cancer is preventable. Regarding the preventive measures, good hygiene was told by 68.5% of respondents followed by HPV vaccine 38.3%, using condom 19.5% and Pap smear test 8.7%. The knowledge about the HPV vaccine was only on 11.8% of respondents. There was no statistically significant association between knowledge with selected variables (age, religion, ethnicity, family income, smoking and sexual practice) in the study. Based on findings it is concluded that female students had inadequate knowledge regarding cervical cancer. This result reflects the need for health awareness campaigns to the students and community people regarding cervical cancer including the symptoms, causes, risk factors and preventive measures.
Rita Giri has completed her Master in Nursing from Tribhuwan University. She has worked as staff nurse in different hospitals in Nepal and worked as lecturer and clinical supervisor in different Nursing College of Nepal.
E-mail: ritagiri2044@gmail.com
