1. Patient knowledge and attitudes toward cervical cancer screening after the 2012 screening guidelines
- Author
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Brownsyne Tucker Edmonds, Joanne Daggy, Jayanti M. Clay, and Sunetris Fluellen
- Subjects
Adult ,Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Demographics ,Population ,Uterine Cervical Neoplasms ,Cervical cancer screening ,Young Adult ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,medicine ,College education ,Humans ,Mass Screening ,030212 general & internal medicine ,education ,Early Detection of Cancer ,Cervical cancer ,education.field_of_study ,business.industry ,030503 health policy & services ,General Medicine ,Middle Aged ,medicine.disease ,Test (assessment) ,Risk perception ,Family medicine ,Practice Guidelines as Topic ,Cervical cancer prevention ,Women's Health ,Female ,0305 other medical science ,business - Abstract
To assess women's attitudes and preferences related to recent changes in cervical cancer screening guidelines.We distributed 380 surveys in three University based and Community clinics. Study participants anonymously completed surveys, which included questions related to demographics, cervical cancer, screening practices, risk perception and attitudes towards changing practices.315 women agreed to participate (83%). 60% (185/310) of participants had some college education or higher and 12% (36/305) worked in the medical field. On average, participants answered 4.1 (SD = 1.3) of the 8 knowledge questions correctly. Knowledge scores significantly increased with education level (Kruskal-Wallis test p-value 0.001). The majority (72%, n = 228) reported that they should be screened annually, and that screening should be initiated with the onset of sexual activity (63%, n = 197). Participants that were more knowledgeable of current screening practices were more comfortable extending screening intervals (Kruskal-Wallis test p 0.001).Even among a relatively highly educated population of women, participants had limited knowledge of cervical cancer and current screening guidelines. Many participants reported discomfort with less frequent screening intervals.This study supports the need for improvement in cervical cancer prevention education especially with regards to the new screening guidelines.
- Published
- 2019
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