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Qualitative study of women’s anxiety and information needs after a diagnosis of cervical dysplasia

AIM: Each year almost 15,000 Danish women are diagnosed with cervical dysplasia, a precursor to cervical cancer. The period of medical follow-up, or ‘watchful waiting’, to monitor for regression or progression of the lesion before deciding if treatment by conisation is necessary can be long. The aim...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Lee Mortensen, Gitte, Adeler, Anny Lisbeth
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer-Verlag 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2967227/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21151479
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10389-010-0330-1
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author Lee Mortensen, Gitte
Adeler, Anny Lisbeth
author_facet Lee Mortensen, Gitte
Adeler, Anny Lisbeth
author_sort Lee Mortensen, Gitte
collection PubMed
description AIM: Each year almost 15,000 Danish women are diagnosed with cervical dysplasia, a precursor to cervical cancer. The period of medical follow-up, or ‘watchful waiting’, to monitor for regression or progression of the lesion before deciding if treatment by conisation is necessary can be long. The aim of this study was to examine the experiences of women with different stages of cervical dysplasia and to examine whether their knowledge of human papillomavirus (HPV) as the cause of cervical dysplasia influenced their perception of their disease. SUBJECT AND METHODS: We used focus group and individual interviews with 12 women diagnosed with different stages of cervical dysplasia—women who had and had not been conised. Interview guides were prepared on the basis of a literature review that identified important issues and questions for the participants. RESULTS: The participants considered cervical dysplasia to be a highly distressing condition and experienced monitoring as a worrying delay before regression of the lesions or treatment could be initiated. Women expressed a fear of cancer that was not proportional to the stage of their dysplasia, but was determined by their degree of knowledge about their condition. Unlike other sexually transmitted diseases, information about HPV did not result in stigmatisation as the perception of this disease was dominated by cancer. CONCLUSION: This study showed that it is extremely important to address women’s fears, their need for information and to ensure better communication with medical practitioners about cervical dysplasia immediately after diagnosis, irrespective of the disease stage.
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spelling pubmed-29672272010-12-08 Qualitative study of women’s anxiety and information needs after a diagnosis of cervical dysplasia Lee Mortensen, Gitte Adeler, Anny Lisbeth Z Gesundh Wiss Original Article AIM: Each year almost 15,000 Danish women are diagnosed with cervical dysplasia, a precursor to cervical cancer. The period of medical follow-up, or ‘watchful waiting’, to monitor for regression or progression of the lesion before deciding if treatment by conisation is necessary can be long. The aim of this study was to examine the experiences of women with different stages of cervical dysplasia and to examine whether their knowledge of human papillomavirus (HPV) as the cause of cervical dysplasia influenced their perception of their disease. SUBJECT AND METHODS: We used focus group and individual interviews with 12 women diagnosed with different stages of cervical dysplasia—women who had and had not been conised. Interview guides were prepared on the basis of a literature review that identified important issues and questions for the participants. RESULTS: The participants considered cervical dysplasia to be a highly distressing condition and experienced monitoring as a worrying delay before regression of the lesions or treatment could be initiated. Women expressed a fear of cancer that was not proportional to the stage of their dysplasia, but was determined by their degree of knowledge about their condition. Unlike other sexually transmitted diseases, information about HPV did not result in stigmatisation as the perception of this disease was dominated by cancer. CONCLUSION: This study showed that it is extremely important to address women’s fears, their need for information and to ensure better communication with medical practitioners about cervical dysplasia immediately after diagnosis, irrespective of the disease stage. Springer-Verlag 2010-03-31 2010 /pmc/articles/PMC2967227/ /pubmed/21151479 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10389-010-0330-1 Text en © The Author(s) 2010 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
spellingShingle Original Article
Lee Mortensen, Gitte
Adeler, Anny Lisbeth
Qualitative study of women’s anxiety and information needs after a diagnosis of cervical dysplasia
title Qualitative study of women’s anxiety and information needs after a diagnosis of cervical dysplasia
title_full Qualitative study of women’s anxiety and information needs after a diagnosis of cervical dysplasia
title_fullStr Qualitative study of women’s anxiety and information needs after a diagnosis of cervical dysplasia
title_full_unstemmed Qualitative study of women’s anxiety and information needs after a diagnosis of cervical dysplasia
title_short Qualitative study of women’s anxiety and information needs after a diagnosis of cervical dysplasia
title_sort qualitative study of women’s anxiety and information needs after a diagnosis of cervical dysplasia
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2967227/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21151479
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10389-010-0330-1
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