Cervical Cancer: Community Perception and Preventive Practices in an Urban Neighborhood of Lagos (Nigeria)

Background. Cervical cancer prevention in developing countries is suboptimal compared with the developed world where there are fewer deaths and improved survival rates. This study describes the perception and preventive practices on cervical cancer by residents of an urban neighborhood of Lagos, Nigeria. Methods. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 317 consecutively recruited consenting participants at a medical outreach using a pretested, interviewer-administered, semistructured questionnaire. Data analysis was done using statistical package for social sciences version 19. Tests of significance were performed using 95% confidence interval with level of significance set at . Results. The majority of respondents were within 30–49 years of age (46.7%) and female (62.1%) and 70.3% had secondary level education and above. About 37.2% of respondents had heard about cervical cancer with 84.5% of the participants willing to attend a cervical cancer health education program. Among the female respondents, 4.1% had received the HPV vaccine, while 5.1% had undergone a Pap test. Awareness about cervical cancer was significantly higher with increasing age in the total population ( ). Conclusion. There is a need to improve awareness of at-risk groups and the menfolk about cervical cancer based on the immense benefit of male involvement in reproductive health matters. 1. Introduction Invasive cervical cancer (ICC) is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women in developing countries [1]. It is the second most common cancer among women worldwide with an estimate of over 500,000 new cases and about 275,000 deaths in 2008. About 86% of these cases occur in developing countries representing approximately 15% of female cancers [2, 3]. The incidence of cervical carcinoma in Africa is on the rise. However, the true incidence in many African countries is unknown as there is gross underreporting [1]. Few countries have functioning cancer registries but record keeping is suboptimal. Many of the figures in literature are hospital-based, and these represent a small fraction of women dying from cervical cancer, as most women cannot access hospital care and oftentimes die at home [4]. Mortality rates in developed countries with successful screening programs hardly exceed 5 per 100,000 women. In sub-Saharan Africa in 2002, survival rate was 21% compared with 70% and 66% in USA and Western Europe, respectively [2]. In Nigeria, 80% of the 10,000 women who develop cervical cancer annually die from it [5]. The known primary underlying cause is the