In bayat district women WHO have pap smear, evaluation of the relationship between knowledge about cervical cancer and HPV and levels of hopelessness

This research was carried out to evaluate the relationship between the knowledge about Cervical Cancer and HPV vaccine and the level of hopelessness of women who had Pap smear test in Bayat District. The sample of the research consisted of 150 women who applied to Bayat Community Health Center in Çorum and accepted to participate in the research. Data were collected by face-to-face interview method, using a questionnaire prepared by the researcher and Beck Hopelessness Scale. In the evaluation of the data; percentage distributions, mean, median, one-way analysis of variance, Tukey test was used. It was determined that 89.3% of the women had cervical cancer, 71.8% had heard of the pap smear test before, 12% had knowledge about the HPV vaccine, and 58.7% had had the pap smear test before. The average of cervical cancer and HPV vaccine knowledge of women is 9.81±5.95 and the most common is "Early diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer is possible.", "Cervical cancer is a preventable disease.", "The diagnosis of cervical cancer is made by swab test (Pap test/HPV test)." It was determined that they answered the statements correctly. It has been observed that the level of knowledge differs significantly according to educational status, marital status and profession. Beck hopelessness scale mean of women was 5.43±4.02; The hopelessness level of 42% is minimal. It was observed that the hopelessness scale differed significantly according to the education level, occupation and number of births (p<0.05). In our research, it was observed that the hopelessness level of women differed significantly according to the answers given to questions 1,2,4,8,9,10, and 17, among the information statements about Cervical Cancer and HPV vaccine. As a result, in this research; Although most women have heard of the pap smear test, the rate of having a pap smear test is quite low. In addition, it has been determined that the level of knowledge and awareness of women about cervical cancer and HPV vaccine was low, and the majority of women were at minimal hopelessness level. Keywords: Cervical Cancer, Pap smear, HPV, Hopelessness