Prevalence and risk factors associated with precancerous cervical lesions among women in two cities in Cameroon

INTRODUCTION: cervical cancer is the fourth commonest cancer of women world-wide with increasing incidence in developing countries. This study determined the prevalence and assessed risk factors associated with precancerous cervical lesions among women in Cameroon. METHODS: this cross-sectional study enrolled 925 women participants of a screening campaign for precancerous cervical lesions from June to November 2018 in the selected hospitals. A convenience sampling technique was used and socio-demographic, sexual and reproductive data collected from consented participants by means of self-administered questionnaire. During the gynaecologic examination, a cervical smear was collected, stained by the Papanicolaou staining technique and the results classified according to the Bethesda 2014 guidelines. Frequency, percentage, Chi square and regression analysis were conducted using SPSS version 20 and p-value considered at 0.05. RESULTS: of the 925 participants aged 25-65 years (mean 40.2±10.2 SD), 113 (12.2%) had the lesions among whom 9 (7.9%) had atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance, 75 (66.4 %) had Low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion and 29 (25.7%) had high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion. Factors associated with the lesions were: age 1.85 [1.42-2.41; p= 0.001] and parity [OR= 1.46; 95% CI: 1.30-1.89; P= 0.004]. CONCLUSION: the prevalence of precancerous lesions was 12.2%. Age, parity were significant risk factors. Regular screening targeting the population at risk in this study becomes a priority.