Effect of Health Education Programme on Knowledge of Cervical Cancer Screening among Women of Child Bearing Age in Anambra State, Nigeria

Aims: This study aimed at finding out the effect of Health Education programme on knowledge of cervical cancer screening among women of child bearing age in Anambra State.

Study Design: The study adopted a quasi-experimental research design.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital Awka and General Hospital Onitsha between June 2019 to September 2019.

Methodology: Using multi-stage (purposive) sampling technique, the sample size for this study consisted of one hundred and eighty four (184) women (134) subjects for experimental group and 50 subjects for control group) attending antenatal in public hospitals in Anambra State. The instrument contained five questions on demographic data of the respondents, questions on knowledge of cervical cancer and practice questions with four point response options. The reliability of the instrument was established by using Cronbach alpha for estimating the internal consistency of the instrument. The means and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions and inferential statistics (ANCOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance in the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS).

Results: The findings indicated health education programme was effective and significantly increased cervical cancer screening knowledge of women of child bearing age. On the basis of the findings, it was recommended that awareness campaigns and education programmes to enlighten the public about cervical cancer screening should be broad to encompass signs and symptoms, risk factors and modes of prevention of the disease.

Conclusion: Health education programme significantly increases the knowledge and screening practice. The knowledge transfer to the women was effective. According to the results, the trainings for cervical cancer and early diagnosis can be given to the health workers who are the role models for the women and societies within the framework of theoretical models tested, and the validity and reliabilities have been proven.