Awareness and Uptake of Cervical Cancer Screening, Vaccination and Associated Factors among Female Undergraduates in Nigeria

Abstract

Cervical cancer though preventable, is one of the leading causes of death among women. Its incidence is still very high in Nigeria despite  the availability of a vaccine against the virus that has been implicated in the incidence of many cases of cervical cancer. This study  determines awareness, uptake, screening and vaccination against cervical cancer (CC) among female undergraduates in a Nigerian  University. This descriptive cross-sectional study was done among female undergraduates. Participants were recruited using a multistage  sampling technique. A structured questionnaire with ascertained validity and reliability (0.86) was administered to 313 female  students. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics. Awareness of CC was high (73.5%) while that of screening (52.1%) and  vaccination (26.8%) were moderate and low respectively. Only 9.3% had good knowledge of CC. The uptake of screening (9.3%) and  vaccination (6.1%) were low. Some of the participants opined that lack of awareness was the major reason mentioned for non-uptake of  screening (47.9%) and vaccination (73.2%). The study showed that awareness and uptake of screening and vaccination were low. There is  a great need to reduce the incidence of CC which seems almost impossible with the current level of screening and vaccination uptake.  Though there is an advocacy for a policy on national screening and vaccination, there is a great need to leverage opportunistic screening  by healthcare workers.