Effect of Health Education on the Knowledge of Cervical Cancer, Human Papillomavirus and Self-sampling Among Women in a Low- Resource Setting

Abstract

Cervical cancer is a disease of public health importance affecting many women and contributing to avoidably high levels of cancer morbidity and mortality in Nigeria. In spite of the relative ease of prevention, the incidence is on the increase. A key reason is the lack of awareness and knowledge of the disease. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of health education on awareness and knowledge of cervical cancer (CC), human papillomavirus (HPV) and self-sampling (SS) among women in a rural Nigerian community. The study design was pre-post quasi-experimental, carried out among adult women in Orhuwhorun community in Udu Local Government Area (LGA) of Delta State. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to recruit 230 women from May to June 2021. Data were collected by semi structured, self- or interviewer- administered questionnaire. The intervention consisted of structured health education. Data analysis was done with SPSS v. 25.0. Paired sample T-test was used to compare the mean scores before and after educational intervention. A p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.  The intervention raised the level of awareness of cervical cancer, HPV and SS from 18.7%, 14.8% and 0.9% respectively to 100% (p < 0.001). The proportion of women with good knowledge of cervical cancer, HPV and self-sampling rose from 11.7% to 97% (p < 0.001), 7.4% to 93% (p < 0.001) and 0.4% to 100% (p < 0.001) respectively. The mean knowledge scores were also increased (p < 0.001). There was statistically significant difference between the pre and post health education scores concerning the knowledge of cervical cancer (t = 42.989, df = 229, p = 0.001), HPV (t = 51.305, df = 229, p = 0.001) and self-sampling (t = 190.369, df = 229, p = 0.001). The awareness and knowledge of cervical cancer, HPV and SS was low among rural women in Delta State before the health education intervention. It is, therefore, imperative that cervical cancer awareness campaigns among this populace be heightened.