Effect of Health Education on Women’s Knowledge Level about Pap Smear’s Early Detection of Cervical Cancer Prevention

Abstract

AbstractCervical cancer is a scary disease for women all over the world. This disease can actually be prevented and identified early. Pap smear is one of the tools of early detection to determine the presence of symptoms of cervical cancer. If women’s knowledge is good about pap smear’s early detection of cervical cancer, it can prevent the disease. The objective of this study was to know the effect of health education in women about pap smear which aids in early detection and prevention of cervical cancer. This was a quasi-experimental one group pretest, conducted without a control group at Murni Teguh Memorial Hospital (MTMH), Medan, North Sumatra from June to July 2018. There were 36 samples selected using purposive sampling. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used for data analysis. The results of this study showed that there was a difference in the mean value of women's knowledge levels (p = 0. 000) before and after the intervention. The conclusion of this study was that there was a significant effect of health education in terms of an increase in the level of women's knowledge about pap smear’s early detection and prevention of cervical cancer. It is expected that health education about pap smear’s early detection and prevention of cervical cancer will prove to be very important in the future.