Knowledge and practice of Togolese women concerning cervical cancer

To identify the determinants of the knowledge and practice of Togolese women concerning cervical cancer.

This cross-sectional study with a descriptive and analytical focus took place in Togo during the four-month period from May to August 2016 and surveyed women aged 18 to 60 living in the Lomé municipal area for at least 12 months. Sampling of the intervention zones was based on reasoned choice depending on the availability of health structures in the area. Once in the field, the health centers were taken as landmarks, and the individual living closest to the center was the first to be surveyed. The snowball technique was adopted. All data were entered and analyzed by Epi Info version 7.2 and Excel 2016. Bivariate (chi-2) and multivariate (logistic regression) analyses were performed to study potential associations between different variables.

We interviewed 207 women, whose mean age was 31.7 years (±10.7). Of the 65.5 % (95 % CI = 58.6-72.0) of respondents who had heard of cervical cancer, 2.9 % (95 % CI = 0.6-5.2) knew HPV infection is a risk factor. Of the 70 women seeing a gynecologist-obstetrician, only 23.2 % (95 % CI = 13.0-34.9) had been screened for cervical cancer. More than half of our respondents had a history (96.1 %) of voluntary interruption of pregnancy, or miscarriage, infection and gynecological and obstetric surgery. The proportion of women with both an obstetric history and screening was 9.7 % (95 % CI = 6.0-14.5). The leading reason for not being screened among our respondents was a fear of pelvic examination (frequency: 11.9%, 95% CI = 7.2-16.5).

Women seeing a gynecologist and/or with a high educational level are more likely to be informed about cervical cancer and have a greater likelihood of screening.