Awareness about cervical cancer among women residing in urban slums of Mysuru city of Karnataka, India: A cross-sectional study

Introduction: Globally, cervical cancer is the 4th most common cancer and is one of the leading cancers causing death in India. Cervical cancer is one of those cancers which can be easily prevented by screening women who are aged above 30 years and by vaccinating young girls against HPV. Lack of awareness about cervical cancer makes early detection and timely screening difficult. Awareness about cervical cancer among people will help us to decide on an appropriate model of behavior change communication to control the disease. Objectives: 1. To assess the awareness about cervical cancer among women residing in urban slums. 2. To find the association between awareness and socio-demographic profiles of women. 3. To assess the awareness about HPV vaccination and screening. Methodology: The cross-sectional study was carried out from October to November of 2018 in the urban slums of Mysuru city. Arbitrarily 5 registered slum areas were selected. 211 consenting participants were enrolled in the study. The Cervical Cancer Awareness Measure (CAM) was used as the survey tool for interviewing women. Results: Among 211 women, 26.1% were aware of cervical cancer. Among those who were aware, 9.1% had good knowledge, 27.30% had average knowledge about cervical cancer and 63.60% had poor knowledge about cervical cancer. Chi-square test showed an association between age category, education level and awareness to be statistically significant at a p-value of < 0.05. 3.8% were aware of HPV vaccination