Awareness of gynaecological cancer and factors affecting in women: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine women’s awareness of gynaecological cancer and the factors affecting this. The analytical, cross-sectional study was carried out with 422 women attending a gynaecology outpatient clinic between July 15 2019 and January 15 2019. Data were collected using a General Characteristics Form and the Gynecological Cancers Awareness Scale (GCAS). Descriptive statistics, the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, the Mann–Whitney U-test, the Kruskal–Wallis test and Spearman’s correlation analysis were used for data analysis. The mean score for the GCAS was 149.1 ± 0.85. The mean scores of the participants found for its subscales of early diagnosis and information, prevention, risk and routine checks, and serious illness were 15.40 ± 0.16, 21.44 ± 0.18, 26.61 ± 0.27 and 85.71 ± 0.52, respectively. The mean scores for the scale and its subscales had a correlation with age and education. The findings showed that the women had greater than moderate awareness about gynaecological cancers. Nurses and midwives should take account of age and education levels when offering training.

Impact Statement

• What is already known on this subject? An important factor in the protection of women from gynaecological cancers is awareness. Increasing the awareness of gynaecological cancer is important in terms of early diagnosis of the disease, treatment and reduction of mortality. Studies have shown that women's awareness of gynaecological cancers is generally above the moderate. There are, however, many factors that affect women's awareness of gynaecological cancer.

• What do the results of this study add? The present study shows that many factors have an effect on women’s awareness of gynaecological cancer. In particular, age and education status had a relation with the mean scores for the GCAS and all its subscales.

• What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? Increasing awareness is very important for the early diagnosis and treatment of gynaecological cancers and reducing mortality. Health professionals should identify the factors affecting awareness of gynaecological cancer and continuously design and implement personalised education programs. The number of studies on the awareness of gynaecological cancer and the factors which influence this awareness is insufficient. It is thus necessary to increase the number of studies on this subject.

Keywords:

• Awareness
• care
• gynaecological cancer
• nursing
• women’s health

Disclosure statement

All authors have no conflicts of interests to declare.