Cervical Cancer Screening as Correlates for Tackling Maternal Morbidity and Mortality in Ondo North Senatorial District, Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

In developing nations like Nigeria where the levels of illiteracy ,poverty and poor access to quality health care are high the health problems that were thought to have been conquered are still surfacing alongside with other global health problems like cervical cancer, HIV/AIDS, Lassa fever, Ebola, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and tuberculosis. Most of the conditions that cause morbidity and mortality among Nigerian populace are preventable and that is why serious consideration must be placed on regular screening and periodic medical routine examination. Cervical cancer is primarily caused by Human Papilloma-Virus (HPV) and its relationship to cervical cancer has led to new tools for primary prevention with HPV vaccines and new screening strategies that give clinicians options for every resource setting. The ability to substantially reduce the more than one half million women per year that are diagnosed with cervical cancer and more importantly the ability to reduce the quarter of a million women per year that die of the disease particularly in under resourced areas of developing countries like Nigeria and the study area in Ondo state. The researchers generated four formulated four research hypotheses and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The sample for the study were 1800 respondents attending maternal and child clinic in all the government owed health institution in the six local government areas of Ondo North Senatorial district of Ondo State. Cross sectional research survey of descriptive type was used. The instrument for the study was self-structured questionnaire. The face and content validity of the instrument was established and found to be 0.76 while the reliability coefficient of 0.79 was obtained using test retest method. The four null hypotheses were rejected which showed that there is positive correlation between maternal morbidity and mortality and cervical cancer screening, parity and sexually transmitted diseases. The following recommendations were made among other things: there should be regular screening for cervical cancer among women of reproductive age, the number of times a woman should carry pregnancy should be reduced to lowest minimal and family planning services should be promoted, any patient infected with sexually transmitted diseases should be thoroughly treated and investigated to enhance quality reproductive health care services.