Factors Influencing the Utilization of Cervical Cancer Screening services Among Women in Katikamu - Luweero District.

Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate the factors influencing the utilization of cervical cancer screening services by women of reproductive age at the reproductive health clinic Katikamu in Luweero district. Cervical cancer is ranked as the most frequently occurring cancer among the women in Uganda. It is the second most common cancer among women world wide.” World Health Organization (September 2010) report titled human papilloma virus (HPV) and related cancers in Uganda.”Every year 3,577 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 2,464 die from this disease. In Uganda more than six million women require the screening services but only 5% most of them being in urban areas and report when the disease is in advanced stages. The main objective of the study was to determine the factors influencing utilization of cervical cancer screening services. The specific objectives included: i) To identify the demographic factors influencing utilization of cervical cancer services. ii) To determine the socio economic factors that hinder utilization of screening services. iii) To determine the proportion of women who have had cervical cancer screening services done. iv) To establish the reasons why women in Luweero do not go for cervical cancer screening services. Descriptive cross sectional study was carried out and the a sample of 138 women attending reproductive health Uganda Luwero clinic were studied at a single point in time. In this study, both qualitative and quantitative data were collected using questionnaires and interviews and analysed. The results reveal that utilization the services among the women of reproductive age was still low despite availability of the services. The study established that majority of the respondent 78.8%(106) never screened for cervical cancer before with only 23.2%(32) respondents who had screened before. The study revealed that socio-economic, demographic factors influence the utilization of cervical cancer screening services. The reasons for not going for screening include fear for positive results 55(39.9%),pain during the procedure 17(12.3%) women, lack of time to come for screening 22(15.9%) and long queue 12(8.7%) were revealed by the study to affect the utilization of screening services. The study therefore has the following recommendations. The government should take a step to equip public health centers with requirements for screening cervical cancer . The government should take a step to work in collaboration with non-governmental organization to carry out health education and outreach services in remote areas. The government should take a step to enroll and appoint more midwives and doctors to easy access and provision of services in rural areas.