Awareness of Carcinoma Cervix Prevention Strategies in Women Attending a Tertiary Care Centre, Kerala-A Cross Sectional Study.

Background In this study, we wanted to assess the awareness of screening techniques for detection of carcinoma cervix and utility of HPV vaccine in women aged between 18 years and 65 years. Methods This was a hospital based cross sectional study conducted among 155 women attending the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Government Medical College, Thrissur, Kerala, India, for awareness of preventive strategies against carcinoma cervix, for a period of one year from January 2022 to December 2022 after obtaining clearance from the institutional ethics committee and written informed consent from the study participants. Results 85.8% had heard about carcinoma cervix and its symptoms, but only 56.8% believed that ca cervix is preventable. 50.3% had heard about pap smear and 20.6% had actually done the same. No one had ever done HPV testing, 71.6% of them because they had never heard about the test, 23.9 % because it was too expensive. 31% had only heard about the HPV vaccine, but no one had ever taken it mostly because it is expensive (31%) and not in government supply (19%). 77% were only willing to vaccinate their children, mostly because it is expensive. 89.7% were willing to take HPV vaccine if it is in government supply. Conclusion Even though carcinoma cervix is the second commonest malignancy in India around one fifth are not aware of the disease itself. Almost half of the participants do not believe it to be preventable. There is a large gap in knowledge of screening strategy like pap smear and HPV testing. Notwithstanding there exists a knowledge gap in the awareness of HPV vaccine, willingness for vaccination is hampered by its high cost and nonavailability in government sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]