Determining the Knowledge of Women and Their Attitudes Regarding Gynecological Cancer Prevention

Abstract

The current study determines the knowledge of female course attendees of the “Municipality Cultural Centerfor Women”, located in the city center of Sivas, Turkey, and their attitudes regarding gynecological cancerprevention. The participants of the study include 497 women attending one of the two Municipality CulturalCenters situated in the city center of Sivas. In this study, the sample was not selected; all participants wereencompassed within the scope of our research. A total of 418 female course attendees who volunteered to participatein the research were identified as the sample. The data were collected during the months March-June 2011, bya questionnaire developed by the researchers. To compare the distribution of the collected data “Anova”, “twoindependent t test examples” and “chi square test” were used. The research indicates that 45.1% of the womenhad had gynecological examination as a consequence of a physical disorder. The reason for 54.9% of the womento have gynecological examination is to have been scanned to check for gynecological cancer, 51.2% had a papsmear test. Some 34.9% of them had obtained information about cervical cancer, 39.7% via radio, television orinternet and 36.3% from a doctor. Age, education level and marital status of the women participating in thisstudy demonstrated statistically significant correlations (p<0.05) with gynecological examination and undergoinga pap smear test.