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Experiences of cervical cancer survivors in Chitwan, Nepal: A qualitative study

INTRODUCTION: Cervical cancer is a global leading cause of morbidity and mortality. The majority of cervical cancer deaths occur in developing countries including Nepal. Though knowledge of cervical cancer is an important determinant of women’s participation in prevention and screening for cervical...

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Autores principales: Shrestha, Gambhir, Mulmi, Rashmi, Phuyal, Prabin, Thakur, Rahul Kumar, Siwakoti, Bhola
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7644025/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33151965
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234834
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author Shrestha, Gambhir
Mulmi, Rashmi
Phuyal, Prabin
Thakur, Rahul Kumar
Siwakoti, Bhola
author_facet Shrestha, Gambhir
Mulmi, Rashmi
Phuyal, Prabin
Thakur, Rahul Kumar
Siwakoti, Bhola
author_sort Shrestha, Gambhir
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Cervical cancer is a global leading cause of morbidity and mortality. The majority of cervical cancer deaths occur in developing countries including Nepal. Though knowledge of cervical cancer is an important determinant of women’s participation in prevention and screening for cervical cancer, little is known about this topic in Nepal. This study explores the experiences of cervical cancer survivors and assesses the attitude of family and community towards it and stigma related to this disease in Bharatpur, Nepal. METHODS: The study design was qualitative methods involving two focus-group discussions. A total of 17 cervical cancer survivors, who have completed two years of cancer treatment were selected purposively from Chitwan. All qualitative data were transcribed and translated into English and were thematically analyzed. RESULTS: The majority of the participants had scant knowledge about cervical cancer, its causative agent, showed less cervical cancer screening, delayed healthcare-seeking behavior despite having persistent symptoms before the diagnosis. The main reasons identified for not uptaking the cervical screening methods were an embarrassment and having no symptoms at all. Most of them endured social stigma related to cervical cancer in the form of physical isolation and verbal abuse. CONCLUSIONS: There is an urgent need for interventions to make women and the public aware of cervical cancer and launch effective health education campaigns, policies for cervical cancer prevention programs. This implementation can save the lives of hundreds of women and help them avoid going through all the negative experiences related to cervical cancer. More studies are required to gain the perspectives, knowledge, experiences, and attitudes of cervical cancer survivors to add to the research.
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spelling pubmed-76440252020-11-16 Experiences of cervical cancer survivors in Chitwan, Nepal: A qualitative study Shrestha, Gambhir Mulmi, Rashmi Phuyal, Prabin Thakur, Rahul Kumar Siwakoti, Bhola PLoS One Research Article INTRODUCTION: Cervical cancer is a global leading cause of morbidity and mortality. The majority of cervical cancer deaths occur in developing countries including Nepal. Though knowledge of cervical cancer is an important determinant of women’s participation in prevention and screening for cervical cancer, little is known about this topic in Nepal. This study explores the experiences of cervical cancer survivors and assesses the attitude of family and community towards it and stigma related to this disease in Bharatpur, Nepal. METHODS: The study design was qualitative methods involving two focus-group discussions. A total of 17 cervical cancer survivors, who have completed two years of cancer treatment were selected purposively from Chitwan. All qualitative data were transcribed and translated into English and were thematically analyzed. RESULTS: The majority of the participants had scant knowledge about cervical cancer, its causative agent, showed less cervical cancer screening, delayed healthcare-seeking behavior despite having persistent symptoms before the diagnosis. The main reasons identified for not uptaking the cervical screening methods were an embarrassment and having no symptoms at all. Most of them endured social stigma related to cervical cancer in the form of physical isolation and verbal abuse. CONCLUSIONS: There is an urgent need for interventions to make women and the public aware of cervical cancer and launch effective health education campaigns, policies for cervical cancer prevention programs. This implementation can save the lives of hundreds of women and help them avoid going through all the negative experiences related to cervical cancer. More studies are required to gain the perspectives, knowledge, experiences, and attitudes of cervical cancer survivors to add to the research. Public Library of Science 2020-11-05 /pmc/articles/PMC7644025/ /pubmed/33151965 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234834 Text en © 2020 Shrestha et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Shrestha, Gambhir
Mulmi, Rashmi
Phuyal, Prabin
Thakur, Rahul Kumar
Siwakoti, Bhola
Experiences of cervical cancer survivors in Chitwan, Nepal: A qualitative study
title Experiences of cervical cancer survivors in Chitwan, Nepal: A qualitative study
title_full Experiences of cervical cancer survivors in Chitwan, Nepal: A qualitative study
title_fullStr Experiences of cervical cancer survivors in Chitwan, Nepal: A qualitative study
title_full_unstemmed Experiences of cervical cancer survivors in Chitwan, Nepal: A qualitative study
title_short Experiences of cervical cancer survivors in Chitwan, Nepal: A qualitative study
title_sort experiences of cervical cancer survivors in chitwan, nepal: a qualitative study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7644025/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33151965
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234834
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