KNOWLEDGE PERCEPTION AND PRACTICE TOWARDS CERVICAL CANCER SCREENING AMONG FEMALE INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AT CHULALONGKORN UNIVERSITY, BANGKOK, THAILAND

The rampage of cervical cancer can be prevented through early detection by screening. This study seeks to assess the knowledge, perception and practices of female international students at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand relating to cervical cancer and screening. This research was a cross-sectional study which made use of self-administered anonymously structured questionnaires to assess the set objectives of the study. Using purposive sampling technique, a total of 172 questionnaires were analyzed as results show that about 25% of respondents were 18-20 years old, mean age was 24.4 years (standard deviation 5.5) with range as 18 to 40 years, about 52.3% were undergraduates while 40.1% were in the master's degree level, with 7.6% in the PhD degree level. Respondents from Asia origin were South East Asians comprising of 29.0% East Asians about 18.6%, South Asians 14.0% while respondents from the European countries were about 28.5%, Americans 5.8% and Africans were the least with 7 respondents. Awareness about cervical cancer was high among respondents (99.4%). Overall, respondents' perception was positive by (51%) and practice of cervical screening was only 12.2%. Further statistical analysis showed a significant association between perception and practice of cervical screening among the respondents (chi(2) = 12.985, p-value=0.001), with 60.5% of the respondents having the intention to uptake cervical screening in the future and age (OR: 3.4., 95% Cl: 1.04-2.0), seen to be the predictor. This study shows that overall awareness of cervical screening was low among respondents while uptake of cervical screening was equally poor. Therefore to improve the knowledge gap reported in this study, further health education is recommended for this class of respondents.