Background: Cervical cancer is the 4th cancer in women globally with 85% global burden and nearly 90% cancer related deaths, mostly in Africa. It is the leading cause of female cancer in Tanzania with striking 9772 new cases and 6695 deaths yearly. Despites of being completely preventable, preventive measure have not been implemented across and within the countries.
Objective: Was to determine the awareness of cervical cancer risks factors and symptoms among women of reproductive age attending outpatient clinics at Sekou-toure Mwanza Tanzania
Methods: This was a descriptive cross sectional study which involved 284 women participants conducted at Sekou-toure from October-November 2021. Multi stage sampling technique was used to obtain the study sample. The data was collected by using self-administered structured questionnaire. The data was entered, coded and analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Data was summarized using descriptive statistics. Frequency distribution tables summarized categorical variables.
Result: Most of the respondents involved in this study had already heard about the cervical cancer 86.6%, of these about 52.8% failed to recognize any of the listed risk factors. General awareness of the risk factors is poor 69.4%, most recognized multiple sexual partners, prolonged use of contraceptives and not screened for the cancer as the risk factors for cervical cancer (34.5%, 28.2%, and 27.5%). About 56.3% failed recognized any of the listed symptoms, general awareness of the symptoms is poor 86.3%. Most recognized persistent smelly vaginal discharge, vaginal bleeding after coitus/douching and lower abdominal pain as the symptoms of cervical cancer (34.9%, 30.3%, 22.2 %,), the dominants sources of information are from health care professionals and from radio/television (51.8%, 31.7%)
Conclusion: Majority of the respondents had already heard about the cancer of the cervix from different sources of information but more than half of them are not aware of the risk factors and symptoms of the cancer. Thus these women are therefore unlikely to undertake any preventive measures or seek appropriate treatment when symptomatic leading to late diagnosis and poor prognosis of the diseases. Therefore, there is a need to promote public education of the disease to increase recognition of both risk factors and symptoms of cervical cancer.