Knowledge, Behavior and Beliefs Related to Cervical Cancer and Screening Among Turkish Women

Objective: The aims of this study were to explore Turkish women’s knowledge, behavior and beliefs relatedto cervical cancer and screening.
Methods: The study was performed in two cities in the East of Turkey betweenSeptember 2009 and April 2010, with a sampling group of 387 women. Data were collected by means of aninterview form with the Health Belief Model Scale for Cervical Cancer and Pap Smear Test - Turkish Version.
Results: Women in the research group were found to have poor knowledge, inadequate health behavior andlow/medium level false beliefs regarding cervical cancer screening. There was relation between health beliefsand characteristics of women and particularly education (F = 10.80, p = 0.01). Similarly, it was found that Papsmear barriers were influenced by demographic characteristics and that women with low-level education (p =0.001), divorced women (p = 0.05), women with low-income(p = 0.05), women who gave their first birth whenthey were 18 or younger (p = 0.05) and women not applying any contraceptive method at all (p = 0.01) weredetermined to have negative Pap smear barriers.
Conclusions: Primarily the knowledge, attitudes and beliefsof women in the target group should be evaluated to increase their participation in cervical cancer screeningand to prepare effective education strategies.