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Assessing Knowledge and Attitudes towards Cervical Cancer Screening among Rural Women in Eastern China

There is a heavy burden of cervical cancer in China. Although the Chinese government provides free cervical cancer screening for rural women aged 35 to 59 years, the screening rate remains low even in the more developed regions of eastern China. This study aimed to assess knowledge and attitudes abo...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Liu, Tongtong, Li, Shunping, Ratcliffe, Julie, Chen, Gang
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5615504/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28846616
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14090967
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author Liu, Tongtong
Li, Shunping
Ratcliffe, Julie
Chen, Gang
author_facet Liu, Tongtong
Li, Shunping
Ratcliffe, Julie
Chen, Gang
author_sort Liu, Tongtong
collection PubMed
description There is a heavy burden of cervical cancer in China. Although the Chinese government provides free cervical cancer screening for rural women aged 35 to 59 years, the screening rate remains low even in the more developed regions of eastern China. This study aimed to assess knowledge and attitudes about cervical cancer and its screening among rural women aged 30 to 65 years in eastern China. A cross-sectional study was conducted in four counties of Jining Prefecture in Shandong Province during August 2015. In total, 420 rural women were randomly recruited. Each woman participated in a face-to-face interview in which a questionnaire was administered by a trained interviewer. A total of 405 rural women (mean age 49 years old) were included in the final study. Among them, 210 (51.9%) participants had high knowledge levels. An overwhelming majority, 389 (96.0%) expressed positive attitudes, whilst only 258 (63.7%) had undergone screening for cervical cancer. Related knowledge was higher amongst the screened group relative to the unscreened group. Age, education and income were significantly associated with a higher knowledge level. Education was the only significant factor associated with a positive attitude. In addition, women who were older, or who had received a formal education were more likely to participate in cervical cancer screening. The knowledge of cervical cancer among rural women in eastern China was found to be poor, and the screening uptake was not high albeit a free cervical cancer screening program was provided. Government led initiatives to improve public awareness, knowledge, and participation in cervical cancer screening programs would likely be highly beneficial in reducing cervical cancer incidence and mortality for rural women.
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spelling pubmed-56155042017-09-30 Assessing Knowledge and Attitudes towards Cervical Cancer Screening among Rural Women in Eastern China Liu, Tongtong Li, Shunping Ratcliffe, Julie Chen, Gang Int J Environ Res Public Health Article There is a heavy burden of cervical cancer in China. Although the Chinese government provides free cervical cancer screening for rural women aged 35 to 59 years, the screening rate remains low even in the more developed regions of eastern China. This study aimed to assess knowledge and attitudes about cervical cancer and its screening among rural women aged 30 to 65 years in eastern China. A cross-sectional study was conducted in four counties of Jining Prefecture in Shandong Province during August 2015. In total, 420 rural women were randomly recruited. Each woman participated in a face-to-face interview in which a questionnaire was administered by a trained interviewer. A total of 405 rural women (mean age 49 years old) were included in the final study. Among them, 210 (51.9%) participants had high knowledge levels. An overwhelming majority, 389 (96.0%) expressed positive attitudes, whilst only 258 (63.7%) had undergone screening for cervical cancer. Related knowledge was higher amongst the screened group relative to the unscreened group. Age, education and income were significantly associated with a higher knowledge level. Education was the only significant factor associated with a positive attitude. In addition, women who were older, or who had received a formal education were more likely to participate in cervical cancer screening. The knowledge of cervical cancer among rural women in eastern China was found to be poor, and the screening uptake was not high albeit a free cervical cancer screening program was provided. Government led initiatives to improve public awareness, knowledge, and participation in cervical cancer screening programs would likely be highly beneficial in reducing cervical cancer incidence and mortality for rural women. MDPI 2017-08-27 2017-09 /pmc/articles/PMC5615504/ /pubmed/28846616 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14090967 Text en © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Liu, Tongtong
Li, Shunping
Ratcliffe, Julie
Chen, Gang
Assessing Knowledge and Attitudes towards Cervical Cancer Screening among Rural Women in Eastern China
title Assessing Knowledge and Attitudes towards Cervical Cancer Screening among Rural Women in Eastern China
title_full Assessing Knowledge and Attitudes towards Cervical Cancer Screening among Rural Women in Eastern China
title_fullStr Assessing Knowledge and Attitudes towards Cervical Cancer Screening among Rural Women in Eastern China
title_full_unstemmed Assessing Knowledge and Attitudes towards Cervical Cancer Screening among Rural Women in Eastern China
title_short Assessing Knowledge and Attitudes towards Cervical Cancer Screening among Rural Women in Eastern China
title_sort assessing knowledge and attitudes towards cervical cancer screening among rural women in eastern china
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5615504/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28846616
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14090967
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