Knowledge and attitudes regarding cervical cancer screening among women with physical disabilities living in the community

• Published in: Research in developmental disabilities 2012-03, Vol.33 (2), p.376-381
• Main Authors: Wu, Li-Wei, Lin, Lan-Ping, Chen, Si-Fan, Hsu, Shang-Wei, Loh, Ching-Hui, Wu, Chia-Ling, Lin, Jin-Ding
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Adult Education; Attitude to Health; Attitudes; Barriers; Biological and medical sciences; Cancer; Cervical cancer; Cross-Sectional Studies; Disabled Persons - psychology; Disabled Persons - statistics & numerical data; Disabled women; Education; Educational Status; Familiarity; Female; Female genital diseases; Females; Foreign Countries; Gynecology. Andrology. Obstetrics; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Health perception; Health policy; Health Services Accessibility - statistics & numerical data; Humans; Logistic Models; Marital Status; Mass Screening - psychology; Mass Screening - statistics & numerical data; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Pap smear test; Papanicolaou Test; Physical Disabilities; Questionnaires; Residence Characteristics; Scoring; Screening; Surveys; Taiwan; Taiwan - epidemiology; Taiwanese people; Tumors; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms - diagnosis; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms - epidemiology; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms - psychology; Vaginal Smears - psychology; Vaginal Smears - statistics & numerical data; Women; Women with physical disabilities
• ISSN: 0891-4222; 1873-3379
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2011.08.005

► Examined 498 women with physical disabilities on their knowledge and attitudes regarding cervical cancer screening. ► 77.3% of subjects reported a low level of awareness of Pap smear. ► The logistic regression model revealed that married women, a higher educational level, and familiarity with Pap smear resources had a significantly higher perception level of cervical cancer screening. The study aims to explore knowledge and attitudes regarding cervical cancer screening and to examine its determinants based on the perspectives of Taiwanese women with physical disabilities living in the community. A cross-sectional survey was employed in the study, and we recruited 498 women aged more than 15 years who were officially registered as having physical disabilities in Taipei County, Taiwan, in March 2009. A mail-out structured questionnaire designed to collect data concerning the participants’ demographics, reported use, health experience and perception (understanding and attitudes) of cervical cancer screening among women with physical disabilities. We used a scoring system (range 0–10) to categorize the study subjects’ awareness of screening (low vs. high). The results showed that 77.3% of subjects reported a low level of awareness (score≦7), whereas 22.7% were in the high awareness level group (score>7). The logistic regression model revealed that married women (OR=3.30, 95%CI=1.25–8.71), those with a higher educational level (OR=2.88, 95%CI=1.51–5.53), and those with a high familiarity with Pap smear resources (OR=5.31, 95%CI=2.82–9.98) had a significantly higher perception level of cervical cancer screening among women with physical disabilities. This study highlights the necessity of increasing the knowledge and awareness of cervical cancer screening and reducing the barriers to cervical cancer screening experienced by women with disabilities.