though cervical cancer is the second most common female cancer in Nigeria, there is still a high prevalence of ignorance about causes, symptoms and treatment options for the cancer, a study has said.
In the study, researchers found that although awareness of cervical cancer was not uniform among different groups of women, cervical cancer screening still varies by religious affiliations.
They found that Christian women were more aware of the cancer than their Muslim contemporaries, in a study involving 49 women free of cancer and above 18 years old drawn from two hospitals, one in the South West and the other in the North Central of Nigeria.
Among this relatively well educated women sampled, only a third of them had ever been screened for cancer though most of them were aware of cervical cancer, the study published in the 2016 BMJ Open edition said.
Several participants recognised the role of a sexually transmitted infection in cervical cancer, but only one participant mentioned an association with Human Papilloma Virus (HPV).
Also, there was a higher prevalence of beliefs about an association between practices such as the insertion of herbs into the vagina and cervical cancer among Muslim women.
This, they argued, may be related to prevailing vaginal and sexual health practices within those communities.
While participants also believed that wizardry and multiple sexual partners cause cervical cancer, beliefs that cervical cancer may be caused by charms deployed by men, who are unhappy with their female sexual partners, were more prevalent among Christians in this study.
Moreover, there was a prevailing notion among several participants that cervical cancer screening is only used for detection of cancer that is already present and that the cancer may have a poor outcome even if it is treated.
This limited knowledge of cervical cancer treatment, and its options, coupled with fear of receiving a diagnosis of cervical cancer during screening, the researchers declared, was a strong deterrent to accessing cervical cancer screening services.
Participants mentioned religious and cultural obligations of modesty, gender of healthcare providers, fear of disclosure of results, fear of nosocomial infections, lack of awareness, discrimination at hospitals, and need for spousal approval as barriers to uptake of screening. But these barriers varied by religions across the geographical regions.
According to the researchers, “This was expressed in several forms such as the lack of desire to disrobe for the pelvic examination necessary for cervical cancer screening in the clinic and concerns at being attended to by male healthcare providers.”
To ensure effective cervical cancer screening intervention programmes, they suggested interventions that take into consideration the varying cultural and religious beliefs to increase cervical cancer awareness and screening uptake in multicultural and multi-religious communities.
They also declared that a cervical cancer screening programme was more likely to be successful if it is provided at no or low cost to women.
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