Impact Of Educational Programs Based On The Health Beliefs Of Nepalese Women To Improve Cervical Cancer Screening

Objective To explore the practice and beliefs of women regarding cervical cancer and cervical cancer screening tests among women in Nepal.Methods A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in the mountainous and the Terai region of Nepal.Women were interviewed using a structured questionnaire regarding the sociodemographic information,and a Nepalese Health Belief Model Scale for Cervical Cancer and the Screening Test.Results A total of 510 participants were recruited for this study.The previous cervical cancer screening rate of participants from both regions were lower.There was a significant difference in the practice of screening and perceived seriousness among respondents from mountainous and Terai areas.Women who knew about screening tests perceived less seriousness and fewer restrictions for screening tests.In the mountainous region,women who had no previous information about screening tests viewed cervical cancer as more life-threatening with significant barriers to undertaking a screening test,and for women in the Terai region,they view less benefit of the screening tests.Conclusion Cervical cancer screening test utilization needs to be improved.Increasing the focus of awareness on the benefits and barriers of cervical cancer screening may enhance the behavior of screening by influencing their perceptions.Objective To assess the impact of an educational intervention on knowledge,attitude,practice,and beliefs among health personnel to increase cervical cancer screening rate.Methods A descriptive quantitative research with an educational intervention was conducted in the Lalitpur district of Nepal.The convenience sampling technique was used to select the study setting and cluster sampling was used to select the respondents.The study respondents were health care-givers working at government run health care facility and bachelor degree nursing students studying in different colleges of Lalitpur district.The structured questionnaire was used to collect data before the educational intervention and the same questionnaire was used for the posttest after one month of intervention.The questionnaire includes sociodemographic information,questions related to knowledge,attitude,practice regarding cervical cancer and it’s screening,and Nepalese Health Belief Model Scale for Cervical Cancer Screening.Results A total of 91 health workers and 176 nursing students participated in this study.The knowledge score was significantly increased after intervention among the health workers(P<0.001)and nursing students(P<0.001).Similarly,attitude score was increased among health workers(P<0.05)and nursing students(P<0.001).The practice of screening among eligible health workers(P<0.05)and nursing students(P<0.001)was improved after the intervention.The majority of the health workers and nursing students reported informing patients about the screening test.Among the nursing students,there was a significant difference in susceptibility(P<0.001),health motivation(P<0.001),and barriers of screening(P<0.05)before and after the intervention.The association between health belief model subscales and characteristics of the health workers showed male vs female was significantly associated with susceptibility(P<0.001),seriousness(P<0.001)and barriers of screening(P<0.05),Brahmin and Chhetri ethnic group vs others(Janajati,Dalit,and others)showed significantly different with barriers of screening(P<0.05).Nursing students with a belief in Hinduism(20.39 + 5.58,P<0.05)perceived more seriousness of cervical cancer than the other group(Buddhism,Christianity,Islam,and Kiratism).Also,nursing students with no work experience perceived more susceptible to cervical cancer(P<0.05)and the benefit of screening(P<0.05).The referral for cervical cancer screening was decreased over time.Conclusion Cervical cancer screening uptake can be increased by educating and training health professionals with an application of a strong referral system in low-income countries like Nepal.Knowledge,attitude,and health belief can also be improved with the educational intervention on health professionals.More focus on preventive strategy will improve the screening rates and decrease the disease burden.