Awareness, perception and factors affecting utilization of cervical cancer screening services among women in Ibadan, Nigeria: a qualitative study
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Over the years awareness and uptake of cervical cancer screening services has remained poor in developing countries. Problems associated with cervical cancer incidence include late reporting, ignorance and cultural issues relating to cervical cancer screening. This study sought to explore the awareness, perception and utilization of cervical cancer screening among women in Ibadan as well as factors that influence utilization. METHOD: This is a qualitative study that utilized Eight Focus Group Discussions to collect information from women in selected health facilities in Ibadan, South West, Nigeria. The 82 participants were purposely recruited from women attending Antenatal clinics in 4 secondary and 4 primary health care facilities after approval was received from the Institutional Review Board in charge of the facilities. The focus group discussions were tape recorded and transcribed verbatim. The transcripts were analyzed into themes. FINDINGS: The study provided qualitative information on the awareness, perception of the utilization of cervical cancer screening services among women in Ibadan. Participants were mainly married women (92.7%), mean age =27.6, SD =4.5, mainly traders (39%) and from Yoruba ethnic backgrounds (87.8%) and had secondary education (39%). The respondents reported not being aware of cervical cancer and were not utilizing the services. Though they did not know what cervical cancer screening entailed or the screening methods, they still believed that it is important since like for other diseases will help in early detection and treatment. The participants were eager to get more information from nurses on cervical cancer about cervical cancer screening. The major factors identified by the women that influence screening utilization were ignorance, Illiteracy, belief in not being at risk, having many contending issues, nonchalant attitude to their health, financial constraint and fear of having a positive result. CONCLUSION: There is an urgent need for more enlightenment about cervical cancer especially by health workers. Also, cervical cancer services should be made available at very affordable cost so that women can easily access the services in order to reduce incidence of invasive cancer.
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The literature suggests that global disparities in cervical cancer incidence and mortality are most probably due to a lack of awareness and knowledge of cervical cancer and the unavailability of cervical cancer prevention services at a community level.
“The literature suggests that it is most probably as a result of a lack of awareness and knowledge of cervical cancer and the unavailability of cervical cancer prevention services at a community level.9”
From Towards the development of a community-based model for promoting cervical cancer prevention among Yoruba women in Ibadan Nigeria: application of PEN-3 model (2019) · cites this paper as [9]
The Background reports that most cervical cancer cases occur in developing countries and contrasts limited screening in Nigeria with declining incidence where screening protocols are established. The Discussion and Conclusion identify poor knowledge and unavailable screening services as barriers in the study setting. The paper does not establish that these factors are the most probable explanation for global disparities in incidence and mortality. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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Cabieses, B., & Bird, P. (2014) · International Journal of Health Services · doi:10.2190/hs.44.4.j · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Shpendi, S., Norman, P., Gibson-Miller, J., & Webster, R. (2025) · Women's Health · doi:10.1177/17455057251324309 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
“Low accessibility to obtaining screening was also commonly reported ( n = 34), 23,24,26,28–30,33,37,39,42,46,53,54,56,58,61,65,71,72,74– 79,86,91,95,97,98,100,109,110,123 including participants not knowing where to get screening ( n = 19), 24,28,29,33,39,42,46,53,56,61,65, 71,72,74,75,77,79,95,109…”
Olanlesi-Aliu, A., Martin, P., & Daniels, F. (2019) · Southern African Journal of Gynaecological Oncology · doi:10.1080/20742835.2019.1679528 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- Ndikom, C. M., & Ofi, B. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Ibadan (NG)
- Corresponding author
- Ndikom, Chizoma Millicent
- Venue
- Reproductive Health
- Published
- 2012-08-06
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 11-11
- ISSN
- 1742-4755 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3539913
- OpenAlex
- W2116713413
- Cited by
- 156
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 4.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Reproductive Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Women's cancer prevention and management
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Cervical Cancer and HPV Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Global Cancer Incidence and Screening
- Keywords
- cervical cancer screening, screening utilization, women's perceptions, barriers to screening, illiteracy, fear of positive results, financial constraints, health education, Ibadan
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Uterine Cervical Neoplasms, Female, Humans, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Mass Screening, Nigeria, Patient Acceptance of Health Care, Socioeconomic Factors
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