Abstract
Abstract
Background
Cervical cancer is a leading cause of disability and mortality among women in Africa. Despite significant correlation between HIV/AIDS and cervical cancer, unacceptably low coverage of uptake of cervical cancer screening among Human Immunodeficiency Virus-positive women in Sub-Saharan Africa. Individual primary studies are limited in explaining the patterns of uptake of cervical cancer screening. Hence, this review considers the uptake of cervical cancer screening and its barriers among Human Immunodeficiency Virus-positive women in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Methods
We systematically searched articles published up to December 31st, 2019 from databases of PubMed, Cochrane Library, POP LINE, Google Scholar, African Journals Online and JURN. Quality of included articles was assessed by using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and the coverage of uptake of cervical cancer screening was pooled after checking for heterogeneity and publication bias. The random effect model was used and sub-group analysis estimate was done by countries.
Results
Twenty-one studies comprised of 20,672 Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Positive women were included. Applying random effect model, the overall cervical cancer screening uptake among this group of women in Sub Saharan Africa was estimated to be 30% (95% CI: 19, 41, I2 = 100%). The main barriers to uptake of cervical screening to include: poor knowledge about cervical cancer and screening, low risk perception of cervical cancer, fear of test result and fear of screening as painful, lack of access to screening services, high cost of screening service, and poor partner attitude and acceptance of the service. The perception of an additional burden of having a cervical cancer diagnosis was found to be a unique barrier among this population of women.
Conclusion
The review revealed that cervical cancer screening uptake is low due to poor knowledge about cervical cancer and screening, low risk perception of cervical cancer, Fear of test result and fear of screening, lack of access to screening services, high cost of screening services and poor partner attitude and acceptance of the service. Besides the above, perception of an additional burden of having a cervical cancer was found to be a unique barrier for these group of population.
Publisher
Research Square Platform LLC