Accuracy of VIA for the diagnosis of cervical cancer and associated factors among women attending cervical cancer screening at Hawassa university comprehensive specialized hospital, southern Ethiopia: Institutional based cross sectional study

BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is the commonest pelvic malignancy in the world, forth among women cancers, but 2nd commonest after breast cancer in the low & middle income countries. The disease is the second common in Ethiopia, with a prevalence of 13.4% with similar impact of cancer death. The aim of this study is to know the degree of cervical cancer among the suspected, & its associated factors among the women visiting the hospital for cervical cancer & precancer screening at specific period. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A five years retrospective hospital based cross sectional study was conducted. All clients who came for screening with a visual inspection using acetic acid (VIA) & suspicious of cancer were included. Finally, every suspected woman with a complete chart was included. Data was coded and entered using Epi Data Version 3.1 then was exported to SPSS version 21 for analysis. Proportion, mean and standard deviation were used to describe the study variables. Then bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify association between independent & outcome variables. Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with 95% Confidence interval (CI) and p value (<0.05) were computed to assess the presence and degree of statistical association between dependent and independent variables. RESULT: The prevalence of cervical cancer among the study women was 28%. Illiterate women suspicious with cervical cancer after positive test have five times increased odds of being diagnosed with cervical cancer than those who had formal education AOR 4.885(0.180, 0.741) 95%CI. Women with multiple sexual partners had eleven times increased odds of having cervical cancer than those with single sexual partner AOR 11.5 (1.273,24.34) 95%CI. Also, women who had referral for suspicious lesion for cervical cancer had significant association AOR 5.477(1.715–17.498) 95% CI. CONCLUSION: This study has revealed a significant proportion of cervical cancer among the participants; and the factors associated with cervical cancer were multiple sexual partners, poor educational status (Illiterate), & those referred for suspected disease.