Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices towards Cervical Cancer and Screening amongst Female Healthcare Professionals: A Cross-Sectional Study

Table 2

Participants’ knowledge about cervical cancer.

Items of the knowledge scale for cervical cancer	Frequency (%)^a	95% CI^b
Risk factors
R1: multiple sexual partners	35 (8.9)	6.2–12.1
R2: early sexual intercourse	57 (14.4)	11.1–18.3
R3: HPV infection (human papillomavirus)	38 (9.6)	6.9–13.0
R4: infection with the human immunodeficiency  virus (HIV)	54 (13.7)	10.4–17.5
R5: cigarette smoking	51 (12.9)	9.8–16.6
R6: ever used contraceptive methods	53 (13.4)	10.2–17.2
Vulnerability
V1: women age >50 years	34 (8.6)	6.0–11.8
V2: reproductive age	55 (13.9)	10.7–17.7
V3: both of the above	62 (15.7)	12.3–19.7
Sign and symptoms
S1: vaginal bleeding	27 (6.8)	4.6–9.8
S2: foul-smelling vaginal discharge	29 (7.3)	5.0–10.4
S3: contact bleeding	48 (12.2)	9.1–15.8
Prevention
P1: avoiding multiple sexual partners	30 (7.6)	5.2–10.7
P2: avoiding early sexual intercourse	49 (12.4)	9.3–16.1
P3: screening and treatment	11 (2.8)	1.4–4.9
P4: avoid/quit cigarette smoking	39 (9.9)	7.1–13.2
P5: all of the above	39 (9.9)	7.1–13.2
What are the ways of screening
WS1: Pap smear	17 (4.3)	2.5–6.8
WS2: visual inspection of cervix	25 (6.3)	4.1–9.2
WS3: human papillomavirus DNA testing	42 (10.6)	7.8–14.1
WS4: liquid-based cytology	75 (19.0)	15.2–23.2
WS4: there is no way of screening	31 (7.9)	5.4–11.0
Median (IQR) total score for the knowledge scale^Ϯ	1 (0–4)
Level of knowledge based on the total score
Poor (score of 0–4)	311 (80.8)	76.5–84.5
Fair (score of 5–10)	58 (15.0)	11.6–18.8
Good (score of 11–20)	16 (4.2)	2.5–6.8

^aFrequencies and percentage (%) for the “Yes” responses; percentages are computed with missing observations included in the denominator. ^b95% confidence intervals in column 3 for the percentages (%) in column 2. ^ϮResponses to each item in column 1 were recoded as Yes = 1 and No or Don’t know = 0, and total score (0–20) was computed, and median total score (interquartile range (IQR)) is presented in the table. Data are missing in R1 (for 22 participants), R2 (24), R3 (20), R4 (41), R5 (29), and R6 (51); V1 (39), V2 (50), and V3 (77); S1 (14), S2 (19), and S3 (24); P1 (23), P2 (29), P3 (19), P5 (29), and P6 (67); WS1 (20), WS2 (35), WS3 (67), WS4 (72), and WS5 (73).