Cervical Cancer Care Seeking Behaviour among Community Women, Jos-North, Plateau State

Most people are infected with HPV shortly after the onset of sexual activity. The screening rate has not reached the WHO's target. This study seeks to assess community women's care-seeking behavior toward cervical cancer screening participation. A cross-sectional design was employed, community women who met the criteria for inclusion were given a self-developed questionnaire conveniently. Results show that the majority (51.9%) of women were between the ages of 21-29, majority (83.0%) had only one sexual partner, majority (75.0%) were extremely poor with very low yearly income of less than 284,700.00 Naira, and 19.3% experienced gynecological symptoms. Majority (78.5%) have the fear of being diagnosed with cancer, and 69.6% fear exposing their genital area. Women agreed that HPV is the causative organism of cervical cancer and husband do not allow someone to touch their wives’ private parts. They moderately agreed that a woman must obtain consent from her husband before going for screening, that exposing their private part is culturally inappropriate. Only 14.1% of those surveyed had ever undergone a cervical cancer screening. Among the respondents who had screened, 57.9% had bad experience. There is a significant difference between age group and screening where majority who had screened were older women within the age group 30-65 years (X2=8.402; P-value=0.005) and having gynecological symptoms has positive influence on screening participation (X2=7.422; P-value=0.012). The majority (92.6%) believed that husband involvement and the caregiver's friendly attitude are among other facilitating conditions to screening. In conclusion, there was low screening participation among community women. Women's knowledge of cervical cancer and screening did not translate into participating in screening. Low socioeconomic status has a significant impact on screening, screening rates were higher among older women than younger ones, and experiencing gynecological symptoms has a positive impact on screening. It was therefore recommended that interventions aimed at enhancing care seeking behavior based on women's needs be implemented.