Attitudes to cervical cancer screening among HIV

Abstract

Degree Project, Programme in Medicine, Author: Rebecka Andersson, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg , Sweden, 2016 Supervisors: Daniel Giglio and Marie Françoise Mukanyangezi Abstract Attitudes to cervical cancer screening among HIV positive and negative Rwandan women Background: Most developed countries have significantly decreased their incidence and mortality rates in cervical cancer in the past fifty years with effective screening programmes. In many developing countries cervical cancer is still a major problem. Rwanda is one of the worst affected countries with an incidence of 49/100 000 women. In 2011 the Rwandan government made an ambitious effort to start fighting the disease by mass vaccinating all girls, and start a screening programme like those present in the developed world. The vaccinations seem to have been a success, but little information is available on the progress of the screening programme, and of Rwandan womens’ attitudes to cervical cancer and screening. This study scrapes the surface of these questions. Purpose: To investigate the attitudes of Rwandan women to cervical cancer screening. Method: Using uestionnaires from an ongoing cohort study, the attitudes of two cohorts of HIV positive and negative Rwandan women were investigated regarding previous screening and reasons for having or not having participated in screening, comparing the two cohorts. Each cohort included 200 women. Result: 28.5% of the women in the HIV cohort and 6.5% of the women in the HIV negative cohort had been screened before, giving a 17.5% screening rate in the whole study population. The most frequent reason for previous screening was recommendation from a doctor, which was more common in the HIV cohort. The most common reason to never have screened was unawareness of screening possibility. Conclusion: Few women had been screened before, and the main reason for this was unawareness of the availability of screening. The most common reason for having been screened before was recommendation from a doctor. This points to continuous contact with healthcare being a beneficial factor in likeliness to screen. Key words:, Cervical cancer screening, Rwanda, Attitudes, Screening frequency, Reason to screen