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Acceptance of Human Papilloma viruses screening by Fort-Portal market-women at risk of cervical carcinoma in Kabarole district, Uganda.
Authors: Dabo IG, Muhindo J, Alkali B, Adamu BI, Uwase J.
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Background: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women worldwide and many of these cancer are linked to Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) genital infection. Access to screening of cervical cells for HPV and carcinogenesis, commonly associated to high female mortality rates attributed to poor socio-economic, sociocultural and behavioral factors may have an underlying poor acceptance of this procedure as factor defining the epidemic of female mortality in this region. Objective: To evaluate the acceptance rate of HPV screening as predictor of cervical carcinoma by market women in Fort portal municipality. Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 270 market women randomly drawn from 6 markets within Fort portal municipality were questioned on their acceptance of HPV and cervical cells screening for carcinogenesis using quantitative (self-administered structured closed ended questionnaires) and qualitative (Key informant interview and focused group discussion with stake holders) methods. Information about acceptance included: knowledge, attitude, practice, social, cultural, economic, geographical, demographic and medical. With Epi-info program, Chi-square, Odds Ratios (OR) and Relative Risk (RR) were used to measure the strength of associations between variables, Yates correction was for minimal error margin. Results: Marriage, occupation, religion and educational level significantly (p<0.05) influenced the acceptance of HPV screening while tribe played no significant (p>0.05) role. Only 7.29% had knowledge of the procedure, 31% had their first sex before age 16, and 18% had 2-3 children while 14% had many sexual partners. About 74% had uncircumcised partners’ Poor awareness on sources of service delivery and concern for safety, Poor knowledge, high costs of clinical services, high waiting time, poor access plan to clinics where necessary, social barriers and stigma and fatalistic misconceptions all hindered acceptance of the test procedure. Conclusion: Acceptance rate of cervical HPV screening is still very low among the studied population and the issues behind this observation including its implication on cervical HPV carriage and predisposition to precancerous lesions are fully discussed.