Perspectives of Women during Reproductive Years for Cervical Cancer Scans and Influencing Factors

Background: This descriptive study was performed in order to assess health perspectives of women, whoapplied to Yildirim Beyazit University Ataturk Education and Research Hospital, Outpatient Clinic of Obstetricsand Gynecology for cervical cancer scans and were in the reproductive years. Factors influencing their perspectiveswere also assessed. Materials and
Methods: In this study, a simple random sampling formula was adopted tocalculate the volume (300) of the targeted sample. Results of the research were obtained through individualdiagnosis form and cervical cancer and the Pap smear test health belief model scale (HBMS).
Results: It wasfound that 75.0% of the women heard of the Pap smear test before, and 48.7% had undertaken one. Some51.4% of the women who had Pap smear test expressed that they had the test at irregular periods. Most of thewomen stated that they heard about the smear test from the health staff (51.7%). Lack of any health complaints(28.3%) and not having adequate information about the test (21.0%) were among the reasons for not undergoinga Pap smear test. It was found that lower dimension average scores of the women obtained from the cervicalcancer and Pap smear test HBMS varied from 7.7±2.3 to 33.5±9.3. When the lower dimension average scores ofwomen from the HBMS were examined, the perception of usefulness was high but the susceptibility and healthmotivations were low.
Conclusions: In this study, it was determined that the awareness of women about cervicalcancer and the Pap smear test was insufficient, and susceptibility and motivation perception towards having aPap smear test were low.